SC State Alumnus invokes Gen. Sherman's burning of Columbia in his response to SC Legislature

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, famous litigator

“I want to serve notice to the General Assembly in Columbia,” SCSU Orangeburg alumni chapter Willie B. Owens said. “You thought it was hell when Sherman hit Columbia, but just wait. Within a few days, we're going to file a lawsuit of $500 million on behalf of South Carolina State University.”

Not to take anything away from lawsuits, but I'm pretty sure no one ever said "Litigation is hell".

Monday Mid-Morning Headlines Thread 9-29-14

It's been a long weekend 'round these parts. We had a birthday party for the (now) three-year-old son, watched the Gamecocks lose a heart-breaker, and generally enjoyed the wonderful cool weather that indicates summer is in full retreat.

Anyway, pour some coffee and get to it. It's Monday.

Here are some of the interesting stories I'm seeing this morning:

1. A Louisiana restaurant is giving 10% discount to concealed weapon carriers. I love it. Anti-gun folks are probably going nuts somewhere.

2. The Khorosan Group is actually al-Qaeda. So that's why no one had heard of them up until we were told they were the most dangerous group ever.

3.  Indicted House Speaker Bobby Harrell's bond has been set at $18,000 and he has to get permission from the Court if he wants to leave the State of South Carolina. However, "Harrell has been granted permission to attend USC's game this weekend in Lexington, Kentucky against the Wildcats." Priorities, right? He may be under indictment, but he'll be darned if he ain't going to the Carolina/Kentucky game.

4. Fans will be able to give input on the name of the minor league team that is coming to Columbia soon. I'm partial to the Columbia Corruption, myself, but there are lots of options here.

Some Initial Thoughts on the SC Highway Patrolman Shooting in Columbia, SC

If you hadn't already seen this, on September 4, a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer shot a motorist during a traffic stop. They just released the dashboard cam video yesterday. Here's the video.

I've watched the video a few times, and it's clear that this was not a good traffic stop. Also, I'm going to say this up front: This shooting should not have happened. Nothing I am about to say should be construed to justify this shooting. OK? So save all the hate mail.

My initial impression is that things start to go a little sideways when the driver gets out of the car. Normally, you stay in your car at a traffic stop. Pretty much everyone knows that. I think law enforcement officers kind of get their "antenna up" when a driver immediately gets out of the car at a traffic stop.

Having said that, this officer certainly did not handle the situation appropriately. He did not control the environment well, and he did not interact with the driver appropriately. So, even though the driver did not do a good thing by getting out of the car, it's the officer's job to handle that situation.

It appears to me that the officer assumed that the driver was reaching into his car for a weapon. This was a bad assumption. Police officers should not shoot people based on assumptions.

Here are the factors that jump out at me that make this incident really bad;

Obviously, it's a white officer shooting a black driver. So of course, there's the element of race. Would this officer have reacted the same way if the driver had been an elderly white woman? I don't know. But this is the first factor that everyone sees. And it's important to recognize this factor.

The traffic stop seems to have occurred during the day. To me, this factor cuts against the officer. We're not talking about a 2:00AM traffic stop, here. For all the officer knows, this guy is on his way to work or something. The scene is well-lit, and there aren't any obstructions.

According to the WIS piece I linked above, the traffic stop was for a seat-belt violation. Now, it's fair game to stop someone for not wearing a seat-belt, but we're not talking about a felony here. Common sense tells you that stopping someone for a seat-belt violation is different than stopping someone for a serious charge. Again, this factor cuts against the officer. Not wearing your seat belt is a relatively minor violation.

Also, when did the officer draw his weapon? It's not clear from the video, but the first time you see the officer come into view, he already has his weapon drawn, extended, and pointed at the driver. To me, this indicates he already had it drawn. Again, that doesn't seem right.

Those are all bad things. Now for a couple of positives:

The driver is alive. That's the best news. No one is dead. Thank goodness.

Unlike Ferguson, there is a dashboard camera video, so we can all see what happened. We're not relying on eyewitness accounts from people inside the gas station. Remember how all the eyewitness accounts in Ferguson were dramatically different? At least with a video, there is a record of what happened.

The police officer was fired, and charged with a crime. This is probably the most important thing, so I probably should have mentioned it earlier. Law enforcement has to operate under the same laws as you and I do. Therefore, if you or I had shot this man in this situation, it's clear that we would have been arrested. Accordingly, I applaud the authorities for not trying to put the officer on "administrative leave" or some nonsense. You apply the same process to police officers as you do to citizens. This officer is now facing up to 20 years in prison for this incident. That's not inconsequential.

The video was released. This point dovetails into the lat one, but it's commendable that the video was released so we could all see for ourselves what actually occurred. There doesn't appear to be any attempt to sweep this under the rug. And that's very good.

Hopefully, the authorities will continue act in a responsible manner and other law enforcement officers will take this as a moment to really think about how they conduct traffic stops. They have a tough job, but they also have the responsibility to do it correctly. In this incident, the job was not handled correctly.

Anyone else have any other thoughts? There's lots to unpack here.

Monday Game Week Links

Happy Monday.

A few things going on this week:

Rick Perry will be in Columbia fundraising for SC Republicans in various different places. He'll be at First Citizen's Cafe on Main Street on Wednesday to raise money for the SC GOP in general, and on Thursday, he'll be at Doc's BBQ for Kirkman Finlay.

In case you want to attend any outdoor events, it looks like the tropical storm is going to miss South Carolina. So the weather should be nice all week.

Oh, and there's a football game that will be played on Thursday.

Jesse Jackson's Group Is Going to Sue Greenville, SC

Apparently, having local city-wide, non-partisan elections is racist, or something.

Aren't Columbia's city elections non-partisan? Are we gonna get sued?

Columbia Will Be Getting Minor League Baseball (Again)

In a 4-3 vote last night, the Columbia City Council decided to fund the construction of a baseball stadium in the Bull Street Development. Here's what the developer hopes it will look like:

Proposed stadium rendering via Hardball Capital

I'm not exactly thrilled with this whole deal, but I really do wish the best for this project. is a success. I'd love to see a vibrant Bull Street development area, I enjoy baseball, and this picture looks cool. This is one of the times that it would give me no pleasure to say "I told you so."

Come on Columbia. Don't screw this up.

Local News Roundup, April 8, 2014

I thought I would just toss out a few headlines for you today:

The City Council is probably going to approve the current plan to spend $29 Million on the baseball stadium tonight. 

In what is probably the most compelling argument to vote for someone other than Lindsey Graham, former cocaine user Thomas Ravenel said he intends to run as an independent if Lindsey Graham wins the GOP Primary.

Bobby Jindal will be the headliner at the GOP Silver Elephant Dinner here in June. No doubt it will be his audition for 2016.

And in unrelated news, some people are upset about the fact that airlines won't have limes for drinks anymore. Get over it, people. You're on an airplane. Flying. Forget about the limes. You're flying.

"We need to talk, we need to communicate, and then come together and sign something of this nature and present it to our public that we represent,"

Said Councilwoman Leona Plaugh, who did not sign the Mayor's "Civility Pledge".

The whole idea of this "civility pledge" seems very middle-school student government to me. I can't believe that grown-ups we put in charge of the City of Columbia are doing civility pledges. It's not that I'm anti-civility. I just don't think a pledge is how you achieve civility.

You're either going to have rational, constructive debate - which at times can be pointed - or you're not. Signing a little pledge isn't going to make someone "civil".

To me,  it all seems like theater. I want to see City Council debate issues, have the public weigh in, and then make decisions. All this nonsense about civility pledges is a waste of time.

Columbia City Council Gives Initial Approval to Funding Ballpark

Morning, y'all.

My two-year-old son decided that 5:00AM would be a good time to start the morning today, so that kind of meant that I was also obligated to start the day at 5:00AM. As a result, I've been up and at 'em for about two hours now. Breakfast has been made, eaten, and cleaned up.

Columbia City Council Votes to Approve Ballpark at Bull Street Site. Go read the whole thing, but it  looks like City Council is moving forward to give some financial support to the baseball stadium in the form of a municipal bond backed by the hospitality tax.

Also, Carolyn Callahan at WIS had a very good Twitter feed of the whole council meeting. She's the most recent person I've added to my Twitter timeline for local Columbia news. If you're into that thing, you should check her out.

Winter Storm Watch Issued for Midlands

Once again, we play our dangerous game, a game of chess against our old adversary -- The Winter Snow. For forty years, your father and your older brothers before you played this game and played it well. But today the game is different. We have the advantage.

Yes, the winter weather is headed our way again. Looks like the storm will hit the midlands on Tuesday night and persist until Wednesday. As always, drive safely. 

One other note, unrelated to the weather: I'm fed up with The State website. They've cluttered it with drop-down ads, pop-up ads, and paywalls. Frankly, I've had enough, so I'm not going to be linking them anymore. There's never really a story on The State that isn't found elsewhere, so I'll go elsewhere. However, if I have to discuss something that is there and nowhere else, I'll be just generally discussing it without linking it. I know that The State isn't relying on me to send them traffic, but I'm just going to take a stand against bad websites that make it difficult to get to the content.

So yeah, mood status: Cranky

2014 Gamecock Baseball Season Preview

Last night, Holbrook, Myers, and Esposito spoke at a Palmetto Club dinner to give a season preview. I took a few notes, and thought I would share with fellow USC Baseball fans. It's long, so I'm putting it below a jump.

Midlands Schools to Have Delayed Opening Because of Cold Weather

No precipitation, but we're now having a delayed opening for the cold? I could understand if it was going to be icy due to snow, or sleet, but there isn't any actual precipitation being forecast. It's just going to be cold.

I don't really think that two hours is going to make much of a difference.

Bart Starr in the 1967 Ice Bowl

Put on a coat, y'all. Or don't. Bart Starr didn't need a coat in the Ice Bowl. Man up.

Columbia City Council members Courted by Individuals Charged with Corruption

The State has the whole piece here. From a cursory reading, it looks like lots of circumstantial evidence without any hard ties between the criminal defendants and Columbia City Council members. However, that aside, it doesn't look good.

Maybe there's something here, and maybe there isn't. All I know is that it doesn't look good.

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company. -George Washington

Indeed.

Break's Over; Back to Work

Ok, y'all, everyone back to work. Break's over. So what's going on in the world today?

1. Did healthcare.gov get fixed over the weekend? Well, sort of. If you define "fixed" as a website that still doesn't really work all the time. It's kind of like Sex Panther Cologne. But hey, for the people who don't have to use the website because they're either exempt or already have insurance, the site works perfectly.

2. Abandoned Sites That Would Make Great Super Villain Lairs. In other news, if you have that hard to shop for person on your Christmas list, here are a list of six abandoned sites that would make great super-villain lairs.

3. Speaking of Super Villains, our "strong mayor" referendum is going to be on Tuesday. Here's everything you need to know, courtesy of The State. Funny, I don't see anything about the mayor getting a cool lair. That seems like a requirement, right?

In all seriousness, I don't have too strong of a position on the "strong mayor" thing. If you elect good people to office, they'll mostly do a good job. If you elect corrupt goobers to office, you'll have a poorly run city. Maybe it's easier to find one good person than it is to find a whole council of them. Who knows? All I know is that I doubt this will solve any of Columbia's problems.

4. Global Cooling Returns! The arctic ice cap grew 29% from 2012. Here's a picture:

Al Gore, call your office.

I'll Be Blogging for Fig Columbia!

What's Fig Columbia, you ask? Fig Columbia is a local magazine and social media presence that is dedicated highlighting the great aspects of Columbia, South Carolina. It will be a great place for keeping up with social events, new restaurants, and all the goings-on around Columbia. It's kind of like Garden & Gun, but specifically tailored for Columbia.

About a month or so ago, I was asked to be a contributing blogger to Fig Columbia and provide a guy's perspective on certain things. Frankly, I was very flattered just to be asked, since I'm not the most stylish person. The Shop Tart will be running Fig Columbia's style side, so if you're familiar with her work, you already know that Fig will be very stylish and wonderfully done.

My pieces for Fig will be along the lines of my "Gear for Guys" posts that I've done and tied into Columbia. You can read my first piece for Fig Columbia here.

All of the content that I create for Fig Columbia will be over there first, but will ultimately be linked back here. I would encourage any of my Columbia readers to go check out Fig Columbia for all sorts of great stuff.

If you don't live in Columbia, don't worry. I'm still going to keep Permanent Press going with all my random rantings, football breakdowns, BBQ musings, political mockery, firearm photos, and all of the otherwise brilliant posts you've come to know and love here.

Kenny Miles Shot Himself Then Lied About It

I don't get this. So Kenny Miles shot himself, and then lied about it, saying that he had been robbed? Does that make sense to anyone?

I get that shooting yourself by accident is embarrassing. I've never shot myself, but if I did, I would be really embarrassed, because that means I was doing something stupid and/or unsafe. Hopefully, that never happens.

However, if I hypothetically do shoot myself, I'm not going to make a false police report and say that someone else shot me in a robbery. That's taking an embarrassing situation and turning it into a criminal act. I just don't understand the thought process here. What in the world would he have done if the police had arrested someone based on his report?

I just don't get it. On the subject of shooting yourself, it can definitely happen. It happened to this guy:

Don't be that guy. Or Kenny Miles.

Incumbents Sweep in Columbia Elections

If you like your incumbents, you can keep your incumbents.

All the incumbents in the Columbia area pretty much cruised to easy re-election yesterday. Hopefully, the Bull Street development will go smoothly, the City can get out from under the Palmetto Compress Warehouse and we can figure out how to keep Five Points from turning into Fallujah.

In other news, Virginia decided to cement its new identity as a blue state by electing Terry McAuliffe, and New Jersey re-elected Christie. Lots of pundits are sure to try and give these two elections larger implications, but I'm not so sure. Maybe Christie is the new face of the GOP, and maybe he's not.

All I know is that he's the media darling for a little while now. We'll see how long that lasts. My guess is that by the time 2016 rolls around, Christie will be labeled an "extremist" "tea party" guy.

In other, other news, fewer young people than expected are signing up for Obamacare. I'm sure this will all work out fine, right?

Election Day News Roundup

Today is an election day here in Columbia. In my neighborhood/district, I get to choose between Todd Walter and Leona Plaugh. Both of them reflect the majority of my views, so that's not too big of a deal.

As for the mayoral race, I'm not really fired up about either candidate. However, when in doubt, vote for the person who you think will spend your money like it was their own.

Around Columbia and South Carolina, here are the other headlines I'm seeing:

1. Former Gamecock Kenny Miles was shot in what appears to be a robbery. Update: Apparently, it's not a robbery.

2. Some SC State Senators are working on a plan to "nullify" Obamacare. Look, I don't like the ACA anymore than anyone else, but let's knock it off with the "nullification" stuff. It's just silly.

3. On the same note, the ACA has even more fun waiting for us. Insurance cancellation for millions is just the start. The real fun will be when the doctor shortage hits. I feel really bad for the Canadians. Where are they going to go, now?

4. To end on a positive note, could Mike Davis be a 2014 Heisman hopeful? I think so.

Advocating for Marijuana Isn't the Same as Being a Stoner

I'll preface this post by saying that I'm not an advocate for marijuana legalization. I'm also not looking to give people hard time for it, either. I guess I'm kind of agnostic. It's a drug. It doesn't have positive effects, but neither does this glass of bourbon that I'm having right now.

Anyway, the (Interim) Columbia Chief of Police has a Facebook page. I'm not sure why, but whatever. That's not the point. Apparently, someone came on his page and engaged the chief of police.

The threat came in response to a Facebook comment by Brandon Whitmer, who was unimpressed by Santiago's announcement of a local pot bust. "Maybe u should arrest the people shooting people in 5 points [a Columbia neighborhood] instead of worrying about a stoner that's not bothering anyone," Whitmer said. "It'll be legal here one day anyway." To which Santiago replied:

@Brandon whitmer, we have arrested all the violent offenders in Five points. Thank you for sharing your views and giving us reasonable suspicion to believe you might be a criminal, we will work on finding you. 

That post quickly disappeared, creating the impression that the author had thought better of threatening critics of the drug war with arrest. Not so! Santiago later posted this:

This is Interim Chief Santiago posting. I was just notified that one of my staff members deleted my post. I put everyone on notice that if you advocate for the use of illegal substances in the City of Columbia then it's reasonable to believe that you MIGHT also be involved in that particular activity[. T]hreat? Why would someone feel threaten[ed] if you are not doing anything wrong? Apply the same concept to gang activity or gang members. You can have gang tattoos and advocate that life style, but that only makes me suspicious of them, I can't do anything until they commit a crime. So feel free to express yourself, and I will continue to express myself and what we stand for. I am always open to hearing how our citizens feel like we can be effective in fighting crime.

My only point in posting this is that advocating for something isn't "reasonable suspicion" that you're committing a crime. It may be identifying yourself as sympathetic, but it isn't a crime to advocate for anything. Maybe I decide to be in favor of legalizing marijuana. That doesn't mean squat as far as "reasonable suspicion".

The Interim City of Columbia Chief of Police needs to calm down. There's plenty of work for him to do, but the whole You don't have anything to fear if you haven't done anything wrong is a little too Germany in the 1930's for me.

Monday Morning News and Open Thread - Ford TriMotor

Happy Monday.

Sorry for the fact that my blog didn't have any posts for the last couple days. I was dealing with my sister's wedding, and I left Kathleen Sebelius in charge of my website here. Can't trust her to run anything, amirite?

In local news around Columbia, my Gamecocks won a 2OT thriller over previously undefeated Missouri, which has now made the SEC East race a bit of a mess. College football is best when there's chaos, though. Could the Sugar Bowl be a possibility? Gene Sapakoff seems to think so...

Also, on a more somber note Columbia attorney Steve Morrison passed away over the weekend. I didn't know him personally, but he was a tireless advocate for better public education.

Finally, if you were outside this weekend around Columbia, you might have noticed a old looking airplane. You probably heard it before you saw it, with that classic low hum of a raidal engine. It was a Ford TriMotor, which was a treat for the aviation minded community here in the midlands. It headed out of town this morning, so if you didn't see it buzzing around Columbia, you'll have to just enjoy this photo.

The 1926 Ford TriMotor

 Enjoy your day.