In his stimulus speech before Congress in 2009, his States of the Union in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and his Jobs Act speech of late 2011, the President repeated referred to spending government money to create jobs to fix America’s infrastructure.

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), leader of the Republican Study Committee, is confirmed to be leaning toward supporting the plan. His public pronouncements that he is leaning toward supporting the plan is leading House conservatives as a whole to support this new stimulus plan — a stimulus plan to create jobs fixing and expanding America’s infrastructure.

The plan will most likely necessitate a federal bailout of the Highway Trust Fund, which is typically funded through the gas tax and is used to pay for highway projects. But Obama’s new stimulus busts the cap on the trust fund and, like social security, gets into general fund money to pay for the spending binge.

Why is Congressman Jim Jordan leading conservatives to support Barack Obama’s latest job creation scheme with federal tax dollars to fund a temporary infrastructure spending binge?

Part of the reason is because highway spending is kryptonite to conservatives. You want to undermine conservative principles, just throw a roads building scheme into legislation.

But the biggest reason conservatives in the House are lining up to bust the budget, bankrupt the Highway Trust Fund, and spend $69 billion more than will come in in revenue is because this is John Boehner’s stimulus scheme, not Barack Obama’s.

County ordinance calls for any member of a commission to be a legal resident and registered voter in Spartanburg County, but Greg Hall, who was placed on the planning commission in November, may not live in the county, according to property tax filings.

On his application for the commission, Hall said he lived at 1 Century Place in Greer in Spartanburg County, and he said he was registered to vote in the Abner Creek precinct.

But 1 Century Place is not a residential address; it’s a commercial property where Hall’s business, Century 3, Inc., is located.

According to 2011 property taxes in Greenville County, Hall claimed his legal residence at 400 West Poinsett Avenue in Greer in Greenville County, a piece of property for which he pays the “legal residence” tax of four percent. Hall paid $1,976.29 in taxes on Jan. 17, 2012, for the home, according to online records.

Since 1979 Hall had been registered to vote in Greenville County, but on Nov. 21, 2011 — just one day before submitting the application for the commission — Hall changed his registration to Spartanburg County, according to the state elections office. Again, Hall used the business address as his home address, according to Spartanburg County’s director of registrations and elections Henry Laye.

In the video you see Jane Hall asking the reporter “Why are you questioning his residency with ME?”

Well Councilwoman … you appointed him, you vouched for him, you asked your fellow councilmen to vote for him and you deemed him (by your appointment) as meeting all the requirement of serving on the Planning Commission and making important economic decisions for Spartanburg residents.

If you’d like to weigh in with YOUR councilperson on this issue, you can CLICK HERE for their contact information.

Press Release Today:

Spartanburg Senate Delegation demands House stand up for Veterans
Columbia, SC – February 8, 2012 – Spartanburg County’s Senate delegation today demanded that the House back off of plans to kill an amendment aimed at recognizing the contributions of South Carolina’s veterans.

This week the House stripped out an amendment from bill H.3124 that would have placed a special endorsement for veterans on their state issued ID cards like drivers’ licenses. The Senate placed the amendment in the bill as a small way of honoring the dedicated service of men and women in uniform who have fought to keep our country safe.

Senator Harvey Peeler appointed himself to the conference committee so that he could personally fight for the amendment’s inclusion in the final bill.

“We’re talking about something as simple as a stamp on their drivers licenses. It just doesn’t make sense, and I’m going to fight to make sure we are honoring our veterans appropriately,” Peeler said.

Other members of the Spartanburg delegation agreed:

“Men and women in uniform are putting their lives on the line every day for us,” said Senator Shane Martin. “This is a small way to honor their sacrifice.”

“Our military veterans are too often forgotten and overlooked these days,” said Senator Lee Bright. “These endorsement stamps are a daily reminder of their significant contribution to keeping our country safe and free.”

“What the House is doing is pennywise and pound foolish,” said Senator Glenn Reese. “This is an honor that costs us next to nothing to bestow, on an ID that virtually everyone caries every day. Let’s not pass up this opportunity to honor our veterans.”

As usual, hit the phones if you think our veterans deserve more respect than collards.

But here … I’ll let Gov Christie tell you about it. (I love this man … not as much as before he become a Romney mouthpiece, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog!) As you watch this ponder … how much of this attitude exists in the hearts of legislators in South Carolina who year after year deny our kids these opportunities, and silently say to themselves “Pfft. Live isn’t fair.”

Listen for this devastating statement “It’s an immoral position and it continues to prop up abject failure.”

I’ll make it easy for ya.

Thomas Alexander ,
Bus. (803) 212-6220

Paul Campbell ,
Bus. (803) 212-6016

Raymond Cleary ,
Bus. (803) 212-6100

Jake Knotts ,
Bus. (803) 212-6350

Hugh Leatherman ,
Bus. (803) 212-6640

William O’Dell ,
Bus. (803) 212-6040

Luke Rankin ,
Bus. (803) 212-6132

and a little extra task if you’re so inclined … Katrina Shealy is running against Jake Knotts. You can give her a donation by clicking here.

Some of you are WAY ahead of me on this issue, some of you are skeptical and some are ambivalent. But for those interested at all, there will be a Suburban Prepper’s Conference on Saturday March 3 in Columbia, and I’m going. This is specifically geared to more surburban attendees than other prepper events, and I have watched YouTubes of a few of the speakers before. If you know our pal Talbert Black … his sister Southern Belle Prepper will be a speaker, and I’ve learned a lot from cruising her website.

Click the link above to register, it is $12 in advance, $15 at the door. There will be vendors there. There is a speaker’s schedule at the link also.

If anyone would like to carpool let me know and I’ll collect names and share opportunities.

and stay tuned for more.

and … if you have a mind … you can call your senator and find out what they’re thinking. I KNOW that many senators want to do the right thing, but are frustrated at the leadership siding with the Dems and putting barriers in the way of doing the right thing.

If a “group of people” make decisions, it is easy to shift blame and accountability since you don’t have to stand up for your own actions. For today, take a look at this article about the progress of the measure to abolish the Budget and Control Board. I’ll come back with another post soon about accountability on our own Spartanburg County Council… and an ordinance proposed by O’Neal Mintz to have Planning Board appointments made “at large” and not each council person being responsible for representing their own district. Keep our local situation in mind as you consider why YOU think abolishing the Budget and Control Board is so important … and whether those principles of accountability should also be present at our local County Council.

Here’s an excerpt from the B&CB article:

Legislation to abolish the state’s six decade-old Budget and Control Board advanced Tuesday following a month-long debate in the Senate on how to proceed.

The measure, which passed by a vote of 36 to 2, amended a bill to create a Department of Administration aimed at strengthening the governor’s office. Florence County Sen. Hugh Leatherman (R) opposed the measure. “I’ll do anything I can to stop that,” he said. He proposed a seperate measure to eliminate the five-member board and assign many of its functions to a five-member State Financial Affairs Authority. But proponents of the winning measure said giving that level of authority to an SFAA wouldn’t fully restructure government, amounting only to a name change. “When five people are accountable, nobody is accountable,” said Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort). Davis co-sponsored the amendment.

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Spartanburg Tea Party … another legislative session has begin. One of the duties, yes duties, of you as a tea party patriot is to keep an eye on your backyard down in Columbia and be faithful to holding your own representatives to their word, and to support of the GOP Platform and conservative core principles. In turn we can have the assurance that tea party patriots in other states are keeping watch on their legislators.

Last year we did pretty good in contacting our reps and letting them know how we saw the issues and requesting their votes for or against. We had some great victories and some disappointing defeats. But, we’re learning! There are a number of folks who take the time to really watch the sessions and speak with legislators as things move forward during the day. When it looks like a vote or a discussion is happening in a sub-committee or committee that we need to know about, they get the word out. But often, hours pass before you see it on our website, and sometimes most of you don’t see an *ACTION ITEM* until the next morning’s email list.

I’d like to try a good old “phone tree” (or even an email tree) so that when I learn of an item that needs immediate attention I can make a few calls, send a few emails, and mobilize as many of you to get involved right away as possible! Often if an issue is in committee, it can’t wait overnight for us to react. So my ask of you is …

#1 Are you willing to be part of the Spartanburg Tea Party SWIFT RESPONSE TEAM?

#2 If so, please email me at info@spartanburgteaparty.org and give me a good phone #, and an email address that you check often. I have 8 people willing to head a small team. I will get the info to them, and they will get the info to you, and then if you have time you can act right away.

We can use this for local issues at the County Council level, and even when Trey and the Gang need our help in DC. You can be as responsive as your schedule allows. I really appreciate all of you who I KNOW are calling and emailing. This will give us the ability to be more flexible and on top of things!

I’m looking forward to hearing from you, I’ll sort out a few lists and let you know who’ll be captaining your SRT (Swift Response Team). thanks!