SCHotline

Editor,

In the past decade we have had some major catastrophe’s. It is easy to pass judgment on how each individual handles adversity. It is also easy to jump to conclusions on how authorities are handling the situation on the ground.

A good example of a failed response would be the handling of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath of a system gone awry. We heard how the Bush administration failed to get help to the residents of New Orleans in a timely manner, but what happened to the local and state authorities that were supposed to be taking care of their constituents? Someone once said that if you wait on the government to help you, you are in for a long wait.

Fast forward to this past week when Southern California was inundated with wild fires fanned by Santa Ana winds. The local and state firefighters jumped to action and began fighting the fires as best they could. President Bush contacted Governor Schwarzenegger to offer any help the federal government could give. He most likely extended the same offer to Governor Blanco of Louisiana if the truth were known, but that is beside the point.

Looking at the news reports from the mainstream media there was another breakdown in the federal governments response to the fires, but when the whole story gets told the picture is painted a little different. One huge problem, in my opinion, is the people that want to make it a political forum instead of a disaster that everyone needs to help with.

I was glad to see when Gov. Schwarzenegger told a reporter from ABC news there is no bad news and she is not going to find any. When you have senators running their mouth before they get the facts it really shows what a sad state we have in Washington. Harry Reid D-Nevada was one of the first politicians to blame the fires on global warming. History proves that the Santa Ana winds have been blowing for centuries and the fires have been around for just about as long. In 1594 a European explorer noted that the Native Americans actually set fire to the chaparral so the animals would be forced into the open for hunting purposes.

We then had the likes of Barbara Boxer D-California saying that if it weren’t for the war in Iraq the state would not be short of equipment to fight the fires. Another myth debunked when it was found out that out of almost 20,000 national guardsmen enlisted in California, there are only two thousand deployed to Afghanistan.

Finally, the attitude of the people of New Orleans was that the government owed them the help that seemed to never get there. There were stories of looting and shootings all over New Orleans. It was basically chaos with no end in sight. The attitude of the people in California was we have a serious problem, let’s get to safety, let the firefighters do their job and we can help where ever we can.

I guess we do live in two America’s. One is to be self sufficient and help our neighbors, the other is to expect an entitlement. Which one do you live in?

Larry Donaldson
Darlington, SC
Dona2026@bellsouth.net

By Jeffrey Sewell [SCHotline.com]

Katie Levinson: Rudy Giuliani National Communications Director [Bio] [Audio]

Katie Levinson currently serves as Communications Director to the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Campaign. Levinson is responsible for all aspects of strategic communications, managing a staff of over twenty including the press office, rapid response team, war room, regional press operation and nationwide surrogate activity. Levinson also serves as the campaign’s chief spokeswoman appearing in national, international and local broadcast and print media. The Washington Post called Levinson “…a major recruit in the 2008 presidential staff sweepstakes.”

Immediately before joining the Giuliani campaign, Levinson served as Communications Director for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s historic landslide re-election victory in California. Levinson was responsible for all strategic and day-to-day communication for the campaign. The communications operation Levinson ran in California was described in the San Francisco Chronicle as “among the most technologically advanced and effective… ever seen in the state” and the Washington Post remarked the campaign “drew wide praise in the political world.”

Prior to the Schwarzenneger re-election campaign, Levinson served as Director of Television at the White House where she was the primary liaison and spokesperson for all television network executives, anchors and producers. As a senior member of the White House Communications team, Levinson was involved in a wide range of issues including foreign policy and the war on terror, the economy, Supreme Court confirmations and crisis communications.

Before serving in the White House, Levinson was the Director of Broadcast Media and senior spokesperson for the Republican National Committee (RNC) during President Bush’s successful bid for re-election in 2004. During her tenure at the RNC, Levinson oversaw a national and regional television operation, directed a multi-million dollar operating budget, and managed media relations for both the Republican National Convention in New York and each Presidential and Vice Presidential debate.

Levinson has also spent time as a political producer with MSNBC in New York and worked in the public affairs firm of Hill and Knowlton in Washington , counseling Fortune 500 corporations on media outreach and issue advocacy strategies.

Levinson began her Washington career in the office of her hometown Congressman, Christopher Shays, of Connecticut. Working her way up from answering the telephones in his office, Levinson was appointed Shays’ Communications Director serving as primary spokesperson and managing strategic communications in both the congressional and campaign offices.

Originally from New Canaan, Connecticut, Levinson holds a Masters degree with honors in Public Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics and earned her Bachelors Degree summa cum laude from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York .

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Send him a email and say Happy Birthday! walterw@starboardcommunications.com

Shhh! Don’t tell him where you heard about this though….. It is a secret!

A Giuliani aide confirmed today that Sanford will in fact not be endorsing the mayor any time soon.

SCHotline

[Update] We understand the same to be true: http://fitsnews.com/2007/10/11/whos-giving-rudy-love/#more-2018

Aw shucks, can’t we just get along?

I do hope that Dr. James Dobson (who I admire greatly) doesn’t throw the baby out with the political bath water.

I agree with some of what Dr. Dobson says. I also admit that it has been difficult for me to get excited about some of our other Republican Candidates but not for Fred Thompson. Until Dr. Dobson, comes to that realization, I honnestly believe we are looking at another Clinton Presidency.

I wouldn’t try to look into his mind or heart but what I see Dr. Dobson saying is: if he can’t get just what HE HAS ORDERED UP he doesn’t want any part of what we Republicans have left. That my dear is a recipe for disaster. He must know that.

The world won’t end because we elect another President Clinton, but we will have stem cell research on a wholesale level. We will have abortion on demand and probably at every street corner. Roe vs Wade will never be looked at again. We will have a cut and run foreign policy. Which will translates into 4, 5, or 6 dollar a gallon gasoline prices which spells RECESSION. We will have higher taxes on the people who work hard and earn the most money. Illegal Immigration will be the order of the day until President Clinton gives Amesty to all of the illegals who inturn will vote Democrat. Can you spell Quid Pro Quo?

For the longest time, Radical Islam hated and killed Jews. Their goal was and is the termination of israel and the restoration of the their Mosk at the Temple Mount. They have now moved past that goal and have their sights on everone worldwide who does not support Islam. Remember the World Trade Center? They are out to kill us because we are infidels. They look at us as something less than human. I want a President who will stand up to Terrorism not a President who would kiss someone like Arafat for political expediency.

Jesus was totally different. He told his disciples, if they don’t accept your message, knock the dirt off your sandles and move on. That’s the Savior I believe in. .

I could go on but I think you see how strongly I feel about this.

If you have any influence with Dr. Dobson or any of his people, please ask him to pray about what he is apparently trying to do to the Republican Party as we now know it. If he has a Republican savior (small s) for us, ask him to tell us now and not at the 11th hour when its too late.

Focus on the Family may soon become focus on America’s past, especially if Dr. Dobson suceeds in destroying every Republican candidate that doesn’t meet his standards. I proudly support Fred Thompson. I hope other Evangelicals will as well.

Charlie Lybrand

by Senator Danny Verdin

The rapid growth of the renewable energy industry demonstrates that Americans care greatly about their natural resources and that the future of rural America and agriculture correlates closely with our nation’s energy policy. Congress must act to maintain that growth and support a tremendous opportunity for rural communities and businesses.

Most of us readily accept that increasing our nation’s energy independence depends on our ability to rapidly develop and produce alternative forms of energy, such as biofuels. The growth and production of this new energy will primarily occur in our nation’s rural areas.

Supporters of renewable energy and the independence it brings also recognize that success relies on two critical factors: the availability of sufficient debt capital to meet the growing demands of the renewable energy industry, and local ownership of production facilities as a means of ensuring economic stability for the nearby agricultural operations and rural communities.

Congress has an opportunity to address both issues in the current Farm Bill. The Farm Credit System has served for 91 years as a farmer-owned, reliable source of financial services and products to agriculture and rural America. An amendment proposed to the Farm Bill in the Senate would enable more rural businesses engaged in alternative energy production to gain access to the Farm Credit System.

The capital requirements of the renewable fuels industry vastly exceed the capacity of any one sector of the financial services industry. Most local banks don’t have sufficient capital to make adequate loans on their own. “Ethanol Producer” magazine noted in its September issue, banks tend to “perceive the risk to be too great” and, in any event, suffer from a lack of underwriting expertise in this area. Banks consequently often team up with Farm Credit, the nation’s largest agricultural lender and a pioneer in financing the alternative fuels industry dating back to the early 1990s.

Few lenders outside Farm Credit have the expertise, capacity, and willingness to fund biofuels investments. “Ethanol Producer” also noted that, “For the most part, ‘Main Street’ lenders have yet to develop an understanding of the underwriting necessary for financing…biodiesel plants, anaerobic digester projects, wood pellets plants and other sources of renewable energy.”

Congress created Farm Credit in 1916 as a means of ensuring that farmers would always have a lender on whom they could rely regardless of the ravages of weather and price fluctuations, and the farmer-owned cooperative lender has focused on rural and agricultural financial needs.  However, antiquated eligibility criteria currently inhibit Farm Credit’s ability to provide more funding to the renewable fuels industry. Congress must act to modernize the eligibility criteria to include new technologies that process agricultural products. These technologies are key to our energy independence and the national security it brings.

If you’re a farmer who wants to invest in a biofuel plant, you can borrow from Farm Credit.  But if you aren’t a farmer, you can’t – even though your biofuel plant sits in a rural area and processes tons of material from the surrounding farms. Even though the alternative fuels industry got its start among the farmer-owned cooperatives served by Farm Credit, outdated eligibility requirements make it difficult if not impossible for Farm Credit to make capital available to these projects.

These and other alternative fuels also have the potential to rally local economies and put money and people to work. Rural towns that are involved in ownership of renewable fuels facilities can build a sustainable economic base on which to maintain their rural culture and quality of life. If farmers are able to join with other investors to develop alternative fuels, they can finally shed their dependence on the rollercoaster prices and their reliance on subsidies associated with commodity crops. Finally, proper financing of a successful alternative fuels sector will eliminate the financing of foreign oil production and the dangers it entails.

One example in South Carolina is a new biodiesel plant constructed and ready to begin operation in Estill. Located in Hampton County, on the I-95 corridor, this biofuel processing plant offers an opportunity for a depressed rural area in our state to benefit from innovative solutions to a national problem using the very same resources they have cultivated for generations.

Our federal legislators must support market-based opportunities for struggling sectors of our rural populations to grow prosperous again while simultaneously helping solve a national economic and security problem.

Renewable fuels could reduce the US trade deficit by billions. The parallel reduction on our dependence on foreign fuel sources strengthens our national security. It makes eminently good sense to allow more local businesses to benefit from Farm Credit’s ability to help them build a new economy for our state and our nation.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water. Rick Beltram comes out again. I know this stuff is becoming an obsession or something. I would suggest for Rick to focus the same amount of energy and time on defeating some democrats in Spartanburg like Glenn Reese and stop this nonsense with bloggers and “interlopers.”

W:

STRAW POLLS IN SOUTH CAROLINA IN 2007  (by vote totals)

1) SPARTANBURG COUNTY     797                      (Our attendance at Precinct Re-org. was double or more of any other County)

2) PALMETTO FAMILY  COUNCIL    539   (approx)

3) GREENVILLE COUNTY     436   (approx)

Have you ever thought to give credit where credit is due….rather than the opposite?

Also, our number count (03/01/07) was a problem created by one our Staff when a simple machine problem occurred……it does NO good to embarrass that very hardworking person!

We will have Gov. Sanford here on 10/15(Bronze Elephant Dinner)……to talk about the similarities of his ReformSC and our “anti-interloper” campaign!

Would YOU or any other BLOGGER like a FREE ticket?

This way you can really see (first hand) how a top-notch volunteer organization operates?

Please let me know!   

This is a sincere invitation…..

Rick Beltram

P.S. spell check is complete!

by Andrew Citizen

Barack Obama should be running for President of Oprah’s Book Club, not President of the United States of America. Senator Obama stated this week that wants to do away with America’s nuclear arsenal. Such a concept is an idea that is contrived out of one of three ways, either by smoking too much of a peace pipe, believing too much in the accuracy of MoveOn.org, or the fiction in Oprah’s latest book of the month.

Obama’s failure to understand national security is more than worrisome. We live in a brave new world, where telling terrorists and countries like Iran that we no longer have a nuclear defense system, is like a bank telling robbers, we no longer have armored guards or a security system. In a post 9/11 world, we need more security, not less.

Barack Obama consistently has shown he should be running for Class President not US President. He chooses to offer radical promises, no – nukes, free health care, more social programs. Well, Senator Obama, here’s a pop quiz for you: how are you protect America and defend against future attacks without a nuclear arsenal? While we have you in the classroom, here’s an extra credit question, how are you going to pay for all of your social programs, without raising taxes?

Senator Obama, it’s time for you to hit the books and do you’re homework, because you obviously have a far way to go.

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