Think about how upside-down the world has seemed since Obama was elected in 2008. Things we never believed could EVER take place in this country are becoming common-place at a pace that is both frightening and mind-boggling. The more our political world has been churning out of control around us, the more we gravitate toward a conservative rock like Senator Jim DeMint.

What has separated Senator DeMint from the political-pack is that he has been willing to step out and do what is right, regardless of how others are behaving. This is why it is so difficult to believe he would be trying to play king-maker in his presidential forum, entertaining the likes of Romney and Gingrich (and including undeclared candidates like Giuliani and Palin) while leaving out someone like Rick Santorum (who at least finished 4^th in the Iowa Straw Poll, above most of those invited).

Hiding behind a Real Clear Politics poll is not the right thing to do. Our country needs clear, conservative leaders and we need to be able to count on the ones we have, like Senator DeMint, to continue doing what is right and not play into the mainstream. There is no doubt in my mind that Senator DeMint knows who all the players are and what they really stand for. It is his forum and he can certainly do what he likes, but it seems the right thing to do would be for him to invite a truly conservative slate of his choosing.

Should we really have any faith in polls, based on what we’ve seen put out by the mainstream? It is time to FORGET who the mainstream is telling us to choose and do the right thing and give solid conservatives like Rick Santorum a fighting chance.

How would you feel if the state government was about to pass a regulation which would prohibit you from selling your canned goods?  For example; If you have a nice garden and you make and can chow-chow, pickle some okra, can some tomatoes, pickles, etc, you cannot accept payment for it, not even reimbursement for the expense of your jar unless your kitchen has been approved by DHEC.

Want to have a bake sale for your church? NO MORE

Want to have a bake sale for your school? NO MORE

I know you aren’t likely believing this right now, because my own reaction to this was; that such a thing could not pass in South Carolina.

If you are starting to see red… I haven’t even gotten to the bad part… This will not see the House floor and this will never see the Senate floor or the desk of Governor Haley.  This will be passed into law as a regulation.  It has already been agreed to by the Agriculture subcommittee.  Today (03/01/2011) it will go to the full committee and if it passes, it is then on it’s way to becoming law without any further action.

What then?  How can it be undone?  It is very difficult to undo a regulation.  The only way is to create a bill, move it through the House and Senate and have it signed by the Governor.  All that to undo what a few people put in place to regulate (tax) the rest of us.

The Regulation:

Document No. 4154

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

CHAPTER 5

Statutory Authority: 1976 Code Section 39-25-180

Article 6, 5-270 through 5-373. Food and Cosmetics

Synopsis:

The Department of Agriculture proposes these amendments to clarify and to provide a more efficient process for regulating and ensuring properly labeled and inspected food products manufactured in South Carolina, as authorized by S.C. Code of Laws, Title 39, Chapter 25. The proposed regulations will be amended to properly reflect adoption of certain Federal regulations. Additionally, the Department seeks to clarify the regulation of raw honey products.

A Notice of Drafting was published in the State Register on June 25, 2010.

Instructions:

The following new sections of Regulation 5-270 through 5-373 are added as provided below. All other items and sections remain unchanged.

Text:

5-273. Facility Registration Certificate

A. Every facility under the jurisdiction of the SCDA where food is manufactured and/or processed, stored, distributed in South Carolina must register with the Department, listing all types of products to be manufactured and/or processed, stored or distributed at the facility. This includes facilities that are used during non-business hours and that may also be approved by another regulatory agency for use in serving, processing or packaging food products.

B. The firm will be issued a registration certificate, verifying food is from an approved source.

C. The registration certificate must be obtained prior to any sale of food products from said facility.

D. This registration certificate is to be posted in a conspicuous place at the place of business at all

times. If multiple locations, then a wallet registration certificate will be issued (this is for vendors at markets, distributors, etc.).

E. SCDA may revoke the registration certificate if deemed necessary to protect the health, safety and well being of the consumer. Revocation of said registration certificate will result in the immediate prohibition of the facility including manufacturing and or processing, operation, sales, transportation, storage, and distribution.

5-274. Honey

A. Honey and honey products are subject to all labeling requirements of this Chapter, as well as all provisions of Section 39-25-10 et al. This includes honey sold to persons or other entities for resale (i.e. to other retail/business locations, manufacturers, restaurants, bakeries, coffee houses, etc.) including any honey sold which is intended to be used as a food ingredient or additive. Honey used as an ingredient or sold to other retail outlets for retail/resale must be processed in an inspected and registered food processing facility in accordance with these regulations regardless of the amount of overall honey produced by the beekeeper.

B. Beekeepers who produce fewer than 150 gallons of honey annually and who only sell directly to the end consumer are exempt from inspections and regulations requiring honey to be processed, extracted and bottled in a certified food processing establishment, or from being required to obtain a registration verification permit (RVP) from the Department. However, labels are required on all containers of honey that are sold in South Carolina.

5-323. Records.

A. Records of the results of any tests or analysis required pursuant to the S.C. Food & Cosmetic Act or the Federal Food & Cosmetic Act, including HAACP. Acidified/LACF Processing Schedules, and Processing Authority’s evaluation and requirements, shall be maintained by a food processing facility and made available to the Department for inspection for not less than three years from the date when the results were reported from the laboratory.

Fiscal Impact Statement:

No additional state funding is requested to implement these proposed amendments to these regulations.

Statement of Rationale:

The South Carolina Food & Cosmetic Act expressly contemplates consumer protection through the implementation of food manufacturing, labeling and storage standards to ensure high quality and safe food products in South Carolina. These proposed amendments are based upon the recent adoption of Federal regulations through statutory amendment. These regulations will help to clarify the requirements for in-state compliance with federal standards related to food safety and sanitation practices, as well as streamlining the registration process for traceback and accountability of the food manufacturing and food distribution industry in South Carolina.

Do you get a warm and fuzzy feeling when you read this regulation?  It states in here twice that it is to back up adoption of FEDERAL regulations.

When I asked to have this statement clarified: “Every facility under the jurisdiction of the SCDA where food is manufactured and/or processed, stored, distributed in South Carolina must register with the Department.” The reply was basically that it was exactly as stated and means EVERY FACILITY (to even include granny’s kitchen).

What struck me as odd about this was the Fiscal Impact Statement.  How can it not require additional funding to implement this?  It seems they are planning on it funding itself.  I have been told a $500 fine will be imposed for each violation.  Most people will never be aware they are breaking this law until someone shows up at a bake sale or fall festival and starts writing tickets.

If you are concerned about this at all, I would suggest you call all representatives on the House Agriculture Committee and give them your opinions before they pass this out this afternoon. It does not matter if they are your representative or not, this small group is all which stands between us and a new regulation.  I feel like I could get into a whole new topic here of taxation without representation… but my rant is already long enough…

Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs
(Fish, Game, Forestry, State Parks, Rural Development & Environmental Affairs)
Subcommittee Assignments

When you call, they will no doubt try to start spinning this as something good for us.  I would then ask them how they feel about transparency and ask how they believe passing such regulations fit into all that?  If it’s such a good and needed thing then put it to a full vote in the House, Senate, and let Governor Haley sign off on it.  It is time we STOPPED all passage of all regulations.  All our government (both federal and state) has done is regulate our economy into a disaster, and has regulated too many people out of jobs.

I’m told this is being pushed by Clemson… maybe some calls and emails to the university may be in order as well…

Will SC legislators do the right thing or will they side with the “educrats” and ACLU?

Article below By Joshua Dunn 02/02/2011

One of the peculiar facts about the school choice movement is its relative weakness in the country’s most conservative region, the South.  Among the eleven states of the old South, only Florida receives a grade higher than C for its charter school laws from the Center for Education Reform (CER). And arguably the most conservative of southern states, South Carolina, receives a middling C in contrast to deep blue California’s A.  South Carolina has only 45 charter schools enrolling less than 13,000 students.  According to CER charter schools have “highly contentious” relationships with school districts and receive only $3,400 per-pupil compared to $11,400 for traditional public school students.

Somewhat surprisingly, then, South Carolina is on the cusp of leapfrogging most of the competition by passing one of the most ambitious pieces of school choice legislation in the country.  Called the South Carolina Education Opportunity Act (SCEOA), the legislation would provide tax credits to parents choosing to send their children to private school, extend smaller tax credits to homeschooling families, and provide scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools.  The scholarships would be dispensed by Student Scholarship Organizations.

Pointing to the success of Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship Program (see “Does Competition Improve Schools?”), the bill’s supporters contend that it would improve student achievement and save money.   The CATO Institute has already weighed in, saying that the bill would “do a better job” than similar school choice programs in other states.

While one would hope that the legislature would be most interested in the academic gains generated by the bill, its budgetary effects might be what gets it through the legislature.  The state has been hit particularly hard by the recession, and over the past few years has had to rely on furloughs, reductions in local aid, and various cuts to balance the budget. The scholarships and tax credits could not exceed half of the state’s spending per student, which averages around $5,000.  (The remainder comes from the federal government and would be unaffected by the program.) Thus, for every student taking advantage of a scholarship and tax credit, the state would save $2,500.  Regardless of the legislators’ motivations, the bill’s passage would undoubtedly be welcome news to parents who simply want a better education for their  kids.

Should the bill pass, opponents of school choice will no doubt be waiting with knives sharpened and a battalion of attorneys. That makes the U.S. Supreme Court’s pending decision in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn even more important.  Arizona passed a scholarship program funded by tax credits and subsequently found itself sued by the ACLU (and nominal plaintiffs that it rounded up) because many of the scholarship organizations were religious and sent recipients to religious schools.  If the Court sides with Arizona and the Obama Administration, which to its credit defended Arizona’s program and said that the ACLU and its plaintiffs shouldn’t even have standing to sue, it would go a long way toward insulating the SCOA from a legal challenge.

-Joshua Dunn

Arizona Delegation: Can You Hear Us Now?

Tea Party Figure to Lead NH Gop

Yep. Tea Party leaders elected to the highest office in the GOP party in the state, able to move their state and party to the conservative right. It behooves us to look at the SCGOP Chair candidates and their campaigns closely, since they will be in office through the 2012 presidential elections, and SC has a powerful role to play! So I read with interest this story by Wesley Donehue (you may remember him from Jake Knotts’ “raghead” comment made on Wesley’s Internet show … the one show that never got posted online with the rest of the shows) about the ramp up of Patrick Haddon’s campaign with the list of volunteers, and coordinators and social media folks and a couple campaign managers and political directors and staff from state level campaigns.

On the financial side, he’s got some heavy-hitters going to bat for him. For instance, S.C. Federation of Republican Women president Betty Poe is said to be helping bring in the dollars to keep the campaign running. With the people joining up, Haddon’s finance operation looks pretty strong.

As far as staff goes, Todd Kincannon is the senior campaign manager, while Katie Welborn is the other campaign manager. Chris Godbey and Jon Parker are coordinating the grassroots, Kathryn Calhoun Dennis and Chandler Hudson are heading up the volunteer operation, while Katie Wiederman acts as political director and Somer Grasser handles social networking.

Wow. Lotsa people. Even S.C. Federation of Republican Women president Betty Poe said to be helping with “heavy hitter” financial connections. Sounds almost … inevitable. Except that … yesterday, Betty Poe emailed all the members of SC Republican Women’s Clubs stated emphatically that she was not and would not be endorsing or raising money for any SCGOP Chair candidates.

As President of the SCFRW, I have not endorsed or raised money for  any candidate for SCGOP Chairman. I will not endorse or raise money for any candidate for SCGOP Chairman.

Please forward this information to all of your members.

Thank you,

Betty Poe

So, did someone jump the gun inadvertently by mistakenly attaching Betty Poe’s name to Haddon’s campaign? Or … was it an intentional unsubstantiated inclusion hoping to show the “inevitability” of Patrick’s campaign? Either way, not an auspicious beginning.

Tea party, we’ve learned how careful we need to be in vetting and voting for candidates for political office; we need to show the same careful diligence and have the same expectations in electing officers to our state GOP leadership. Contact the candidates, watch how they conduct their campaigns, consider what you want in a SCGOP Chair, how similar to or different from previous SCGOP leadership. Are they more likely to continue on the path of traditional GOP party leaders or … like Arizona and New Hampshire, do we have an opportunity to elect a party leader who will be passionate about taking SC’s GOP up the tea party, liberty loving, “now is the time for a new accountability” path?

The Arts Commission received about $2.4 million in state money this year. In her State of the State address, Haley suggested cutting the Arts Commission and ETV, saying private money possibly could fill their funding gaps.

But arts leaders say corporate and private donations have shrunk as the economy has struggled, and those donations usually can’t be used as matching money for federal arts funding. Money from the state does receive matching federal funds.

So … are we as passionate about letting our legislators know that we want some serious cutting of non essential items as the arts people are about protecting those funds?

Our country has some serious problems and Spartanburg shares in some of those problems with high unemployment and lack of new job creation being at the very top.  Could some of our problems possibly be due to poor representation? Yes, that would be a rhetorical question… coupled with an ounce of sarcasm…

A Spartanburg Herald Journal article by Jason Spencer got my attention yesterday.  It was titled; Spartanburg Delegation Won’t Rush Airport Appointments.

“Several members of the Spartanburg County Legislative Delegation effectively boycotted a special meeting Thursday that had been called to fast-track two appointments to the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Commission. The appointments have garnered much attention because the airport is largely seen as a critical component in this region’s economic development engine.”

REALLY??  We have people we have elected to represent us actually boycotting a meeting regarding a critical component in our economic development engine? If something like this is true, I want to know why and they had better have a darn good reason.

Those who didn’t show will probably tell us it’s no big deal, to which I have to ask:

How come such a big deal has been made about SouthWest airlines coming to GSP?

How come the airport underwent GREAT expansion to compensate BMW?

Didn’t they also make some accommodations for Michelin’s North American Headquarters when they moved in?

How many other large companies in the upstate rely on that airport?

Everything the airport does is governed by this six member board which was lead by Roger Milliken from the beginning (50 years ago).  With the passing of the textile giant and the resignation of another Spartanburg member (Wallace Storey), everything is now tilted toward Greenville. Congratulations Greenville County, you get yet another opportunity to grow more than Spartanburg!

The only House member who attended the called meeting was newly elected Doug Brannon.

It seems most of Spartanburg’s House members are siding with Senator Lee Bright on this boycott.  If your representative is on this list, you need to contact them and let them know how you feel.

Senator Lee Bright

Rep Rita Allison

Rep Steve Parker

Rep Derham Cole

Rep Eddie Tallon

Rep Mike Forrester

Rep Bill Chumley

Rep Harold Mitchell

Rep Mike Anthony

Here is Chad Connelly’s announcement, in video form. Chad will be speaking with us at our February 9 STP meeting, come prepared to Q&A! Here is Chad’s Facebook page.

Eric K. Ward writing at The Nerve details what’s ahead for the Roll Call Voting issue in the Senate. It seems we will have to continue to keep the pressure on! Please read his article and put it on your “to do” list to keep calling!

Some details:

The day after the Legislature reconvened last Tuesday, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Larry Martin, R-Pickens, succeeded in getting a resolution through the committee that he says would accomplish most of the aims of the House bill.

Martin sponsored the resolution, S. 9, and he told The Nerve in a follow-up interview that it is one of the Senate’s top priorities this week. In fact, he said the chamber could take up the resolution today. “And I fully expect that will pass,” Martin said.

But because of Senate procedure, S. 9 would not go as far as the House bill. In addition, Martin’s resolution would apply only to the Senate, while the Ballentine legislation would apply to both chambers if it becomes law.

Moreover, neither the bill nor the resolution is likely to put the roll call voting issue to rest.

Most important legislative measures receive three votes, or readings, in both the House and Senate. The second vote is the crucial one because that’s when debate occurs; first and third readings typically are perfunctory.

Click here for details on taking a tour of the State House and more information. You’ll be shown how to find your way around the State House and how to find the Senate and House balconies. You’ll also be shown where your Representative’s and Senator’s offices are located. We’ll also see the committee and sub-committee rooms, where much of the work on the bills take place.

Your guide will explain to you how you can have real effective influence on your representatives, and where their pressure points are, so that you can have maximum influence for the amount of work you put in.

This is a great opportunity to learn how to become a more effective activist in Columbia and right in your local district. Contact Talbert with your RSVP at talbertjr1@windstream.net.