Hurricane Irene threatens S.C.; Demint denies climate change science

Hurricane Irene churns over the Atlantic in this NASA image. Now a category 3 storm it is building in intensity and tracking north-westward towards the Carolina coasts where it is predicted it will reach category 4 strength.

UPDATE: AUGUST 26, 7:00 PM EST, HURRICANE IRENE IS SKIRTING THE SOUTH CAROLINA COASTLINE. IT HAS NOW DROPPED FROM A CATEGORY 3 STORM TO A CATEGORY 2 STORM. GOOD NEWS FOR THE U.S. HOWEVER IT IS TRACKING FURTHER WEST (INLAND) FROM YESTERDAY'S EXPECTATIONS AND THEREFORE POSES AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS THREAT. ODDLY, TEA PARTY PUNDIT, GLENN BECK HAS CALLED IT "A BLESSING."

South Carolina is particularly vulnerable to severe storms like Hurricane Irene  which is expected to hit the United States as a category four storm tomorrow. Severe weather is a constant threat to the State's valuable tourism industry as they cause heavy beach erosion and threaten the Port of Charleston and other critical infrastructure.

Category 4 hurricane defined: wind speeds between 131 and 155 mph; waves 13-18 feet high. They "tend to produce more extensive curtainwall failures, with some complete roof structural failures on small residences. Heavy, irreparable damage and near complete destruction of gas station canopies and other wide span overhang type structures are common. Mobile and manufactured homes are leveled. These storms cause extensive beach erosion, while terrain may be flooded far inland. Total and long-lived electrical and water losses are to be expected, possibly for many weeks. Source: Wikipedia and CBS News

The vast majority of climate scientists attribute the increase in severe storms to man made-fossil fuel generated global warming. Nonetheless as a friend to major oil and energy interests who contribute to his campaign and PAC, South Carolina's Senator Jim Demint consistently denies science while South Carolina pays the price.

Read: Jim Demint Scoffs at climate change science even as South Carolina beaches are threatened

Read: Koch Industries and other big energy industry interests major donors to Demint and his PAC

Senator Demint's office offered this guidance for constituents as they face the prospect of facing Hurricane Irene and the loss of property and life. 

August 23, 2011

Be Prepared for Hurricane Season

by Jim's Staff

As we continue to monitor Hurricane Irene’s progress towards the East Coast, South Carolina remains at high risk for major effects from the storm.

Be sure to stay tuned to local news for the latest updates on the path of Hurricane Irene and if you live in a coastal area, please make sure that you know your evacuation route.

Everyone should have an personal emergency plan in place for them and their family, whether for hurricanes or any type of disaster.  Please take a few minutes to review the following information: it will be time well-spent!

Resources:

General information on emergency preparation: http://www.ready.gov

Get hurricane current updates & South Carolina-specific info: http://www.scemd.org/

Find your closest Red Cross shelter: http://www.redcross.org/contactus/

Please contact our Columbia office, 803-771-6112, or our Greenville office at 864-233-5366 if we can be of additional assistance.

Demint's Labor Day Forum in Columbia, SC assembles the cream of the extreme

The Confederate Flag waves proudly over the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia where Jim Demint will be hosting his Labor Day GOP candidate's forum. The treasonous flag symbolizes the extreme conservative principles that South Carolina's elites invoke to keep their state unemployed,  uneducated and replete with heath problems and crime since the Civil War.

Tea Party kingmaker, South Carolina Senator Jim Demint is holding a Republican Presidential candidate's forum in Columbia, South Carolina, the state capitol.

Appearing before the invitation only audience will be U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann who's opposition to government bailouts didn't stop her family business from taking federal and State of Minnesota subsidies of nearly $200,000; Texas Governor Rick Perry who's "Texas economic miracle" shares the honor with Mississippi of being the states with the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs; U.S. Representative Ron Paul, Former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman and Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, whom Demint endorsed in 2008, will not be present to represent the liberal wing of the Republican Party. Former Senator Rick Santorum was also not invited along with Huntsman because neither candidate met the polling requirements set by the event's organizers.

The power behind the Kingmaker: who owns Jim Demint?
Amanpour to interview Demint on South Carolina GOP forum and Tea Party's future

South Carolina rape case underscores high incidence of sexual violence in the State

One of many roadside churches just south of Allendale, SC

Roadside churches are about as common as legal loan sharking businesses in South Carolina. Combine that with America's highest violent crime rate, the 15th highest number of forcible rapes among all 50 states, the fact that 50.2% of all South Carolina rape victims are acquaintances of the offender and you can easily understand the story that hit today's national headlines. (Sources of sexual assault Data: US Census, State of South Carolina).

It seems like the conservative culture of family values doesn't work in Jim Demint's South Carolina.

South Carolina pastor Dale Richardson accused of raping women behind church

LADSON, S.C. - South Carolina pastor Dale Richardson has been charged with kidnapping and raping several women at gunpoint, including two of them in a trailer behind his church. He is also accused of kidnapping a fourth who was not sexually assaulted.

According to an incident report, on a Saturday afternoon in July, the preacher picked up a woman and gave her a ride. When the 20-year-old tried to exit out of the car, Richardson allegedly pulled a gun, bound her hands, covered her head and took her to the gray-blue trailer home behind the Free Will Baptist Church in Ladson.

The report also said he later dropped the woman in a wooded area and threatened to shoot her if she turned around. The woman was able to identify Richardson from his picture on the church website, which also displays a short biography detailing how he became a Christian and then a pastor.

Read the full CBS-AP report

South Carolina Sexual Assault Statistics 
The newest statistics from SLED’s website states that in 2009, South Carolina had a total of
1,649 rape offenses reported:

• The rape rate in South Carolina has been higher than the national rape rate since1982.
• In South Carolina, the rape rate has increased 37.6 percent from 1975 to 2009
• A decline of 2.9 percent of rapes took place from 2008 to 2009.
• 50.2 percent of offender relationships to victims of rapes were acquaintances.
• 22.6 percent of rape victims fell into the age range of 18-24.
• Saluda County, SC ranks number one in the state for number of rapes per 10,000 people residing in the county (15 offenses = 7.9 rapes per 10,000 people).

http://www.sled.sc.gov/documents/CrimeReporting/SCCrimeBooks/2008/2008%20Crime%20in%20South%20Carolina.pdf as of March 2011

Don't believe what they say in the "Lame-stream" media, Jim Demint's Tea Party movement is really a lot of fun

South Carolina's junior Senator Jim Demint is proud to be called the Tea Party Senator. His PAC has been credited with electing a large number of pro-Tea Party members to Congress.

Let's take a look and meet the Tea Party folks and learn more about the movement that Demint calls his own.


Compassionate conservatives: CNN-Tea Party debate audience cheers idea that the uninsured should be left to die.


Listen to Wisconsin Tea Party rally applaud their part in helping to crash the U.S. economy.



This disabled Tea Party supporter lives off veteran's benefits and pays no taxes but complains about government spending for other poor and working folks. Its alarming to note that many Tea Party supporters often depend upon and live on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and veteran's benefits even while Tea Party politicians like Jim Demint and Michele Bachmann want to eliminate or severely cut back those very programs.


Tea Partiers in Texas don't like hispanics in the State legislature. They're not too fond of teachers either


Nobody can say Tea Party members don't understand the issues. That's because their leaders do such a great job educating them on everything from the founding fathers to Obamacare, taxes, welfare and government spending priorities.


This Tea Party anti-communist wants to be able to choose a good doctor. We sure hope that he finds one soon.


Thankfully, there are no racists in the Tea Party!

Jim Demint's Saving Freedom reviewed by Charleston, SC paper

Demint twists truth about U.S. debt downgrade perhaps to deflect blame from Tea Party

The Tea Party, bought and paid for by the Koch brothers shows over and over again that its willing to shut down the government, push the country to the brink of default on the national debt and otherwise crash the American economy in order to extract more budget cuts and tax dodges for the rich. 

Despite the fact that Standard and Poor’s explained that the number 1, 2 and 3 reasons for their recent downgrade of U.S. debt were the tea party inspired partisan brinksmanship over the debt ceiling, South Carolina Senator Jim Demint insists that the responsibility for the lowered rating rests with the Obama Administration and that somehow mismanagement by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is to blame. Demint and other conservatives like Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann have called for the Secretary's immediate resignation.

Demint’s false assertions about Treasury Secretary designed to misdirect blame and exonerate Tea Party and Republicans from the first debt downgrade in American history

The fact that the S&P statement nowhere mentioned mismanagement by the treasury department as a reason for the downgrade did not deter the "Tea Party Senator" from making their claims. Perhaps its an effort to redirect blame from the Tea Party Congressional delegation that insisted on tying an increase to the debt ceiling with deficit reduction and went on to consistently refuse to compromise on a much larger package  that would have included some additional revenues from closed corporate tax loopholes, some adjustments to deductions and some broadening of the tax base as proposed by the Obama Administration.

The Obama Administration's "grand bargain"  included $3 Trillion in budget cuts and around $800 billion in increased tax revenues substantially bigger spending cuts than ultimately were agreed upon through the final legislation. The Administration's plan would have likely satisfied the ratings agency although political 'dysfunction' initiated by the willingness of the Tea Party Republicans to push the the U.S. to the edge of default was clearly the main reason behind the credit downgrade.

“...the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges. (Standard & Poors' statement on U.S. debt downgrade)

Ironically, Demint went on to say that the downgrade could have been avoided had the debt ceiling deal included more budget cuts, precisely what the Obama Adminstration including Secretary Geithner proposed in its grand bargain. 

Republican and Tea Party resistance to eliminating Bush tax cuts cited as additional justification for the debt downgrade.

S & P also strongly indicted Republican intransigence on any revenue increases. They clearly stated their worry that the formerly “temporary” Bush tax cuts seemed to be on their way to becoming permanent.

“Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.”  (Standard & Poors' statement on U.S. debt downgrade)

Read the Standard & Poors debt downgrade press release
How a downgrade on the national debt will impact South Carolina's fiscal future

Jim Demint driving the austerity bus: "most powerful political figure" next to President Obama according to The Atlantic

Senator Demint demands the kind of austerity  for the rest of the nation, that consevatives have been imposing on South Carolina for years. His home state is one of the poorest in the nation, has the highest violent crime rate,  and suffers from enormous public health problems. By nearly every social indicator it is a failure. Now its Senator is building a legislative movement to drive the rest of the US down the same road.


August 1, 2011.Senator Jim DeMint was not one of the major political players whose every move we watched this weekend, but he was the animator of much of the high stakes drama over raising the debt ceiling and cutting the national deficit and debt.  DeMint has been the driver of the 'never give up, never surrender' drum beat of the largely freshman class of Tea Party conservatives in both the Senate and the House.  DeMint provided muscle and counsel to Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor in his posturing during this debate.
Read the rest of The Atlantic's analysis

DeMint’s leadership PAC battles leaders in fight for future of Senate GOP caucus

By Alexander Bolton - 08/04/11 The Hill

Members of the Tea Party Caucus and the GOP leadership are in a money race that could shape the ideology of the Senate Republican Conference.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) remains the king of GOP fundraising, but members of the Tea Party Caucus are getting more active about electing conservatives in their mold to the upper chamber.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who often battles his leadership over the direction of the conference, has been more aggressive this year in the use of his fundraising committee.
Read the entire report from The Hill

Read more about who own's Jim Demint
Demint blames Geithner in transparent attempt to get tea party of the hook
Mitch McConnell: victor and "great dismantler" in debt ceiling deal
Wisconsin conservatives ask Demint and Club for Growth to back off  in selection of congressional candidates