Brannon said Martin’s views don’t necessarily represent those of the broader tea party movement. Martin and those who have criticized the six officials are a “small group of right-wing libertarians who call themselves the tea party,” Brannon said.

Welcome to the club! The Spartanburg Tea Party appreciates the support of the 350 right-wing libertarian activist attendees at our school choice rally last night and we welcome the 38 … oops now 41 … OOPS now 44 … who joined our email list since last night. Here’s a sample of what they had to say:

“THANK YOU FOR ORGANIZING IT AND WORKING SO HARD FOR AMERICA! I am going to make every effort to maintain my intensity level on this and other conservative causes.”

“This should have happened long ago. Shame on the republicans who voted no!!!”

“Thanks for hosting a great event. Count on me.”

But wait … THIS JUST IN!

From the Facebook page of OccupySpartanburg:

Please consider protesting the following:

School Choice Rally
Thursday February 2, 2012
6:30 PM-8:45 PM
Cleveland Park
Spartanburg

Freedom Works and the Spartanburg Tea Party are hosting this rally to draw support for private school voucher programs. I hope that Occupy Spartanburg will consider protesting this event. The groups that are hosting this event receive funding from “Corporate Plutocrats” who want to turn our Public Education System into a for profit commodity.

So what does it mean, exactly, when RINOs AND the Occupy Movement team up against a Republican Platform issue and both call you names?

I think it means we’re on the right track

Michael Brendan Dougherty @ Business Insider has this short story:

The Catholic Church is fighting mad about an HHS ruling that would have them buy insurance for things they consider sinful–contraception, sterilization and abortion.

All the bishops in the country sent out a letter to be read in their parishes promising that the Church “cannot-and will not-comply with this unjust law.”

Even Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who is in charge of Catholic military chaplains sent out the same letter.

But after he did, the Army’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains sent out another communication forbidding Catholic priests to read the letter, in part because it seemed to encourage civil disobedience, and could be read as seditious against the Commander-in-Chief.

More than one Catholic chaplain who spoke to us off the record confirmed that many chaplains disobeyed this instruction and read the letter anyway. Others sought further instructions from their Archbishop.

Now after much behind-the-scenes bureaucratic wrangling, a new version of the letter will be read, one that was edited of the language about “unjust laws.”

There’s a little more at the link above.

I am of the opinion that the churches have long stood silent, not wanting to “get involved” with politics when they should have been in the fight all along. They have been complicit in allowing progressives the incredible foothold they now have in our culture and in places of legislative power by “going along to get along” … protecting the tax exempt status that keeps their coffers full.

Karma.

Now stand up and fight.

Please join us for an evening with US Congressman Trey Gowdy (R) and SC Representative Bruce Bannister (R) to learn about the FAST and FURIOUS incident and 2012 Legislation that could affect your 2nd Amendment Rights.

Congressman Gowdy will provide his insight into the BATF scandalous Fast and Furious, his involvement with the congressional hearings and what we can expect in the future. Trey will also highlight pending and anticipated legislation in 2012 that could affect your 2nd Amendment Rights as well as let you know what you can do to help him keep protecting your rights.

Representative Bannister will provide information on the 2012 legislation in South Carolina that could affect your 2nd Amendment Rights, potential changes in the CWP laws, the recent arrest of Upstate CWP Instructor, also to let you know what you can do to help him keep protecting your rights.

Hosted by News Radio WORD talk show host Bob McLain, please join us for an evening to learn, discuss and provide support to our representatives that are fighting for our rights, please help us help them.

Cost for attending is $25.00 if registered prior to the event and $30.00 at the door. One beverage ticket will be provided for the cash bar and there will also be light snacks.

For more information please visit our website www.lineofsightsc.com or contact Shea Kim at Definite Defense, LLC info@lineofsightsc.com or 864-561-1200.

Deedee Vaughters is running for State Senate District 26 seat, currently held by Democrat Nikki Setzler (who was first elected back in the 70s).

————–

In 2010 we heard a lot about the state budget, budget cuts, and yes, stimulus money. The fight over the acceptance of, or the decision not to take the stimulus money made front page news for weeks. Many argued that South Carolina simply could not make it without the $700 million in stimulus dollars and that more jobs would be lost as a result of any refusal to accept the money. Fortunately, all of the debate caused many to examine the state budget like never before.

Many believed and still believe that the state budget is roughly $5.7 billion. This is largely because this is the amount reported on by the newspapers and other media during budget debates. The true state budget is actually much larger; totaling almost $22 billion. Below is a brief synopsis derived from the research of The South Carolina Policy Council.

The South Carolina State Budget is divided into three spending categories. These are the General Fund, the Federal Fund, and Other Funds. The General Fund is the fund that most citizens of the state call the budget and is again roughly $5.7 billion. The General Fund receives revenues from income and sales taxes collected from the residents of South Carolina. The Federal Fund consists approximately of $7.1 billion in money allocated by the federal government for programs such as federal highways, low rent housing, education, Medicaid, agriculture, and labor training and employment. The third fund is entitled the Other Fund and consists of a little over $8.2 billion dollars. This amount being almost 12 times as much money as the received stimulus funds.

The Other Fund is approved by the state legislature along with the General Fund and its stated main purpose is to pay for the operation of state agencies. The Other Fund is also state based receiving monies predominantly through other revenue sources such as fines and fees. The Other Fund provides 100% of the funds for the Educational Oversight Committee, Retirement Systems Investments, the Lottery Expenditure Account, Patriots Point Development, the South Carolina Conservation Bank, the Public Service Commission, the State Accident Fund, the Patients Compensation Fund, the Second Injury Fund and the Board of Financial Institutions. In addition the Other Fund had the following five organizations and agencies as its largest recipients of monies totaling approximately $3.5 billion; Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Human Services, The University of South Carolina, Department of Education and Clemson University. Each of these agencies and organizations received money from the General Fund as well as the Other Fund.

The research team at The South Carolina Policy Council found that the official budget documents did not separate the items at the agency level paid for with General Funds and those paid for with Other Funds. In other words, transparency became very difficult when it could not be determined which funds were paying for which line items. As if the two different funds providing revenue to the same agency was not confusing enough already! It does beg the question as to why the Other Fund exists at all and why all monies are not allocated through the transparent General Fund.

Possibly the scariest bit of information here is the amount of money in the Other Fund. The Other Fund has $2.5 billion more than the General Fund and is appropriated through provisos rather than much more transparent means similar to those of the General Fund. A detailed explanation of the allocation of the $8.2 billion in state revenue in the Other Fund and a listing of the fines and fees funding this budget category is needed. Our state legislature should become fully transparent and show the citizens of South Carolina exactly how they spent all of the $14 billion collected from the taxpayers of this state. Only by continuing to demand that all votes be recorded and all budgets be easily accessible to the public will this state ever achieve true reform and accountability. I for one will continue to remind the elected officials of this state that we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people; therefore accountable to the people! So Columbia please: “show us the money!”

Thanks to the research team at the South Carolina Policy Council for the data referenced here. For more detailed information please visit the website for the South Carolina Policy Council at: www.scpolicycouncil.com or call 803-779-5022. The opinions are mine alone.

Read it now.

Print it out.

Put on your fridge or tape beside your computer.

Read it every day between now and November 2012.

Excerpts:

The most important part of the Tea Party/conservatives’ rise since 2009 has not been its remarkably rapid rise to significance and its ability to affect marquee elections in 2010. That’s the short game, and while it matters, what matters more is that it drew huge numbers of conservatives into the political process.

The next generation of GOP leaders will be Tea Party/conservatives. They are the folks starting out now to compete for the kind of local and state party and political offices that lay the foundation for the party’s future. These offices are vital – they are our farm team, a place for future congressional and senate candidates to gain experience and build resumes while implementing Constitutional conservative policies right now that will improve voters’ lives and win them over to our cause.

The key to leveraging wimpy senators and representatives? The 2014 elections and the ruthless primarying of non-performers. There is nothing an incumbent hates more than the specter of a brutal primary – and at age five years, the Tea Party/conservatives will have a lot more experienced, savvy candidates looking to move up and ready to strike if they sense weakness in the guy holding what they see as their next job. Again, fear of the ballot box is our ally.

Besides political offices, the Tea Party has a unique capability to undercut the current GOP-oriented media/think tank establishment. Much of the conservative media and academia are already Tea Party/conservative-friendly. The rest will find themselves marginalized more and more if they continue to distance themselves from the Tea Party/conservative insurgency. And the Tea Party/conservative insurgency is, of course, actively creating its own outlets (like Big Government and the other Breitbart sites) as well as institutions and events, like BlogCon 2012.

Here are the facts: We are getting stronger every day. They are getting weaker. And a little political moneyball – putting our strengths against their weaknesses in the long game – will do a great deal to hasten the GOP Establishment’s demise.

Strangely, if you look at the article, one of the Spartanburg Six was still confused, although not about the funding. In speaking of SCGOP Chair Chad Connelly’s participation in supporting and defending school choice as a GOP Platform issue, Steve Parker said:

“I am very much offended by it,” Parker said. “If I show up at a pro-abortion rally and I tell you that I am pro-life, just my presence there — what message am I sending if I show up there?”

To ease his confusion let me help … it’s a “school choice” rally, not a “pro choice” rally. One is a GOP platform issue, the other is a Dem platform issue.

I know. Words are hard.

This post from Ace of Spades:

Read the Komen statement. If you are interested in donating to breast cancer organizations who do NOT have ties to abortion providers, here ya go:

Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer – http://www.abortionbreastcancer.com
Breast Cancer Prevention Institute – http://www.bcpinstitute.org

If you donated to Komen after their initial statement the other day and want a refund call (800) 996-3329

NEVERFEAR! We had standing room only at our event last night, and this article by Stephen Largen at SHJ estimates we had 350 in attendance! When the media gives a solid 350 estimate, you know you’ve done well

Largen’s article ended on quite a humorous note. Our speakers made it clear to anyone with any interest in relying on facts for H4576, the Beddingfield School Choice bill, (which currently has 43 co-sponsors) … there are NO PUBLIC FUNDS, no TAXPAYER FUNDS and NO VOUCHERS in the bill. Despite all that, here’s what educrat Scott Price, general counsel for the South Carolina School Boards Association had to say:

“It’s a different version of the same old, same old,” he said. “The bottom line is that each bill is a measure to direct public dollars that can be used and should be used to support our public system… to private schools.”

Who exactly is Scott Price? In 2009 he made $134,000 as the lobbyist for the South Carolina School Board Association. Also worth noting – on his email to all the schools about the choice bill he choose to OMIT details of the tax credit for public school teachers. Cause … info is power and all that, and the teachers, I guess he thinks, don’t need that info.

God help our kids with folks like this in positions of authority in the education system.

Thanks to all of you who attended and who helped out as a volunteer. FreedomWorks did their usual superb job of helping grassroots with issues of liberty and personal choice. It was great to see so many people from our community take a stand on what Mick Mulvaney said during his video: This is the most important issue of this legislative session.

Here’s a quick story from WYFF. I do note they got it right this time, in that this bill relies on “Tax Credits” … private money not public funds.

Lots of politicians rail against federal earmarks in Congress, but the S.C. General Assembly has its own version of earmarks and many of them represent the very same kind of special-interest, pork-barrel spending.

The Legislature’s version of these little gems is called provisos.

A few of them currently in effect, as examples:

Prohibit the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism from reducing funding allocated to its regional tourism-promotion efforts or scaling back the agency’s full-time staffing levels at the State House gift shop and the Santee Welcome Center;

Rebate up to $114,000 in state admissions tax this fiscal year to the Darlington Raceway, a Darlington County facility that plays host to NASCAR races; and

Provide Hollywood welfare in the form of film incentives.

Those samples, however, are small potatoes compared to some provisos.

An especially odious one for state taxpayers prevented the Department of Health and Human Services from reducing Medicaid reimbursement rates.

and …

Provisos are specially crafted legislative decrees assigned a number and sandwiched, kitchen-sink style, into their own section of the budget. Lawmakers sponsor provisos. Agencies also frequently draft the measures, but legislators still must approve them.

The budget contains scores of provisos every year. The provisos section of this year’s spending plan exceeds a novel-length 100,000 words.

It’s unclear exactly how much money gets doled out through these edicts each year, but it easily totals tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

Provisos expire after one year unless renewed, but many are continued as a matter of routine. Those that linger on the books for years usually get codified into permanent law.

We’ve got lots of work ahead of us.