SC Exercising It’s Rights?

Lo and behold, it appears that our great general assembly is looking to make sure that our state and its people retain their rights as granted by the US Constitution.  That’s right, and SC is one of 20 something states that have introduced some similar legislation stating they are against any movements that affect the peoples and states 9th and 10th amendment rights.

After speaking with Inglis today, he believes that HR 45 will pass with Pelosi’s new found power.  This is Bobby Rush’s (D-IL) bill to bar code ammunition and limit gun ownership.  According to the SC House version of the bill, this would be one situation that would force the affirmation of the resolution.  Not sure how much power it will have, but it does give you a warm fuzzy feeling…doesn’t it?

The House bill, H3509, is sponsored by the following individuals:

Reps. M.A. Pitts, Duncan, Thompson, Bowen, Toole, Stringer, Hamilton, Pinson, Bedingfield, G.R. Smith, Cooper, Crawford, Long, Lowe, Nanney, Owens, E.H. Pitts, Rice, Viers and White

Notice that none of the Spartanburg delegation is in this listing.  I encourage you to contact Millwood, Parker, Mitchell, Littlejohn, Cole, Allison, Forrester, Kelly and ask them their positions and to sign on as co-sponsors.

The Senate bill, S424, is sponsored by the following individuals:

Senators Bright, S. Martin, Alexander, Campbell, Fair, Knotts, Cromer, Mulvaney, Verdin, L. Martin, Shoopman, Rose, McConnell, Thomas, Cleary, Courson, Coleman, Davis, Reese and Campsen

Be sure to contact Lee Bright, Shane Martin, and Glenn Reese and thank them for supporting this resolution.

SC State GOP Chairman’s Race

Well, the race for state chairman has now taken an interesting twist.  We have been hearing rumors for several weeks now (10 or so) that someone else may be entering the race, but that name just surfaced in the past 2 weeks.  Karen Floyd, the former Spartanburg County Council Chairwoman, officially announced on Saturday that she was entering the race.

Her, like Rick Beltram, announced after Katon Dawson made it official that he was not going to run again for the seat.

This sets up an interesting situation in good ole Sparkle City.  Beltram and Floyd are both from Spartanburg and have pretty good name recognition.  Beltram is experienced at precinct organization in the county and Floyd made a valiant effort to unseat Beltram in 2003 (Check my dates please), so it will be interesting to see which way the county will float.

However, Beltram may have his hands full as there are rumors of multiple individuals looking to run for his county chairman post.  On that list is Mike Dixon, Monica Hill, Ladonna Ryggs and Karen Floyd.  We have spoken with Monica and Ladonna and they have confirmed that they are not interested.  We have not been able to speak with Dixon or Floyd at the time of this publishing.

Kevin Hall is currently the third cog in the wheel for state chairman.  He has been actively working the state trying to build a base and has landed a few big time endorsements. He recently unveiled a nice campaign site that was designed by an out of state firm in an effort to keep him out of the SC Political Consultant mess.  That didn’t work to well as he has been the scapegoat for Dawson’s loss and others.

Here are the endorsements that we are aware as of 02/16/2009:

• Rick Beltram:
  • Samuel Harms (Greenville County GOP Chairman)
• Karen Floyd:
  • Glenn McCall (SC RNC National Committeeman)
• Kevin Hall:
  • Lindsey Graham (Senior Senator from SC)
  • Jim DeMint (Junior Senator from SC)

We hope to have an quick summary on Karen Floyd up in the next few weeks to go with our previous SC GOP Chairman story.  By the way, go over to The Palmetto Scoop and participate in their online poll.

As for endorsements and associations with campaigns (I need to know where to find political death certificates), I will not be working or endorsing any campaign for state chairman.  I am honored to have been asked to assist in these campaigns and wish the candidates the best of luck in their endeavors.

The Race for the Fightin’ Fourth – Part 2

This is the second segment in a series of interviews for known candidates that are entering the 4th District Congressional Race.  No portion of this article or the following articles in this series represents an endorsement made by Gary Coats or The Conservativist.

Thursday night  we had the privilege to meet with Andrew Smart at a Zaxby’s in Duncan.  It was a great hour long meeting to discuss the issues and his eventual plans on entering the race against Bob Inglis in 2010.  This interview is not an official announcement, it is scheduled in the weeks to come.

Andrew Smart is the owner of Duke’s Sandwich Company and Duke’ Sandwich Productions.  Andrew (30), graduated from Wingate College with a degree in History and played football at Clemson and Wingate.  His wife, Julie, is currently working on her Ph.D at Clemson and they are both members of Taylors First Baptist Church.

Andrew said he is considering a run for this office for multiple reasons.  He believes that there needs to be a new voice promoting conservativism and it is time for a new generation to lead our nation.

“More people our age should be involved and concerned with our nation.”

We asked Andrew about what he thought the Republican Party needed to do to get back on track.  He said first and foremost, Republicans must define what they are going to be.  He believe the party sold out to the people and that he was going to stand and lead on his conservative principles.

“Leadership always stands on principle”

When asked what the biggest issues in the primary would be, he stated that there were 4 big issues that came to mind.

The first and foremost would be the economy and economics.  He believes that the government needs to take more time and analyze the true problems and address them with a solid plan and not one thrown together for a Sunday morning interview.

“Our economy cannot be fixed over night.  You cannot just throw money at problems and think that it is going to solve it.”

He believes that healthcare is the next issue and believes that it may be the next bubble to burst.

“One brush stroke (legislation) will not fix our problems.”

We as American’s should take more interest in preventative medicine.  And then he said the magic words, Personal Responsibility and Accontability. At the time of our interview, he was working on a plan for the healthcare industry.

Education is the next issue that needs to be addressed.  In his personal opinion, education is a national security matter.  Many firms that he has been in discussions with have told them that American’s are not graduating.   He is looking at methods to improve education, including school choice.  On a side note, Andrew is a member of a charter school board.

Last but not least was the fight for our conservative values.  He said the people must continue to fight to preserve there values.  He believes that legislation will not be the cause of our loss of values, but activist judges.

We asked his opinion on the role of government in the markets.  He stated the one role government should be doing is preventing the monopolization of markets.  From his personal experience, he states that the government gets in the way of business.  The USDA houses an office in one of his businesses.  Mandates are passed down to them regularly and he is not looking forward to the new regulations from the recent peanut butter crisis.

Synopsis:
Smart proved to us that he could give Inglis a challenge into the final weeks into the primary.  His posture and personality shows a lot of confidence, a strong work ethic, charisma and passion.  All of these will be needed to win voters in a long campaign.  A historian by education, businessman by trade, Smart will be able to craft solutions to American’s problems and have the knowledge to avoid mistakes of past.  We look forward to see how his campaign develops.

Exercising Our Gun Rights

My father-in-law and I decided to take Thursday afternoon and exercise our 2nd amendment rights.  Allen Arms Indoor Shooting Range in Greenville is a great location to go and enjoy a few hours shooting your weapons and working on your aim for hunting.

We continue to hope that our government will continue to protect our rights to bear arms.  Some of the rules being proposed by Bobby Rush would damage this market and our rights.  Some of the bill calls for bullets to be bar-coded so they can be traced back to the owners. Other bills being proposed would outlaw the weapon above, the MP5.  The shear cost for the weapon alone would outlaw it ($17,000+).  But we were doing some research and found what else it would take to purchase this weapon.  We found this on Yahoo Answer’s:

Since the Heckler & Koch MP-5 is a fully Automatic Machine Gun, you will need to order one thru a Class III Dealer, but before that you will need to complete an application for purchase of a machine gun thru BATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms) You will be subjected to a complete background investigation, and you will be required to submit fingerprints as part of the application process. When and if approved you will in addition also be required to purchase a $200 Federal Tax Stamp. You will then have to figure out where you are going to come up with the cost of the MP-5 itself. They can cost as much as $20,000 and UP, depending on what model and version you choose.

Needless to say, it’s pretty hard to get one with the current process.  Thankfully, to enjoy shooting the weapon, Allen Arms currently rents it for about $20.  Ammunition for the gun was about $12/box of 50.  Needless to say, we only shot it for about 15 minutes, as it gets expensive to shoot.  Overall though, this weapon shoots like a charm.

Where is Ron’s Army Now

Ron Paul proved to be an influential figure in some GOP Party politics across the nation.  He even got some recognition here in Spartanburg after GOP Chairman Rick Beltram shunned him after the May 2007 debates in Columbia, SC.

Since Congressman Ron Paul has dropped out of the race, his supporters in Spartanburg, SC have seemed to disappear and we haven’t heard much about his workings.  In most political circles, many just laugh at the mere mention of his name.  We won’t name names today.

Congressman Paul proved to be one of the few presidential candidates that knew what was going on in the economy.  He was harshly criticized for his stances on the economy and has since become a regular guest on CNN, FOXNews, etc after the meltdown in September.  A quick search  on YouTube (we know that Ron Paul supporters love YouTube) and you find a variety of interviews on the news outlets.  Here are a few.

• 10/23/2008 – FOX Business
• 10/24/2008 – CNN American Morning
• 11/04/2008 – CNN American Morning
• 11/18/2008 – FOX Business
• 01/21/2009 – CNN Glen Beck
• 01/27/2009 – CNN American Morning

So what is Congressman Paul up to?  As many of you may know, he has formed the Campaign For Liberty (C4L).  This organization’s mission:

to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.

As for the C4L in South Carolina.  It seems to be sparsely organized.  I have found reports where Rep. Nikki Haley spoke to a group in Lexington concerning the Roll Call Voting rules changes that she has been promoting and that Spartanburg County’s very own, Hal Grogan has been named interim coordinator of the state.

We know that several Ron Paul supporters were ousted from the Greenville County Executive Committee for supporting Democratic Senate Challenger Bob Conley, who was running as a Conservative Democrat.  He had little support from the state Democratic Party and claims to have been a Ron Paul ally.

All in all, it appears many of the army went different ways, supporting different candidates and getting involved in local parties.  Some have said “screw the GOP” and is afraid to touch them with a 10 foot pole.

To be absolutely honest, I am kind of disappointed that they have disappeared.  They tended to make the meetings around here, well, interesting and some would even say thought provoking.

My question to the boisterous army is…where are you now?

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