Wordless Wednesday: Greer Opry House

This is the legendary local Greer Opry House in downtown Greer, South Carolina. I took these back in October and forgot all about posting them--my apologies.

And a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

Monday Music: Why we build the wall

I was driving through the bleak, forgotten areas of Jim DeMint's old congressional district today; not deliberately. En route to somewhere else and got lost. Ended up in the old Greer mill village, which used to be entirely composed of poor whites, then during the 80s it was entirely poor blacks... and now it is 100% Hispanic, including all of the skimpy corner food-marts (that don't sell actual food), the hair salons, gas stations and other tiny businesses. Does Senator DeMint know all of these brown people are here? Miles and miles of them? He must know. Do they mow his lawn or launder his dress-shirts that he wears to important Tea Party events?

Obviously, from the looks of the place, he counts on them not voting.

It had grown cold and dusky, as I meandered through the extremely depressing atmosphere... when suddenly, I heard this song on WNCW... it was perfect accompaniment for what I saw everywhere, all around me. It made me cry.

An excellent introduction to the holiday season. As Ebenezer Scrooge famously asked, Are there no poorhouses?

~*~

This amazing song is from Hadestown by Anais Mitchell. I could only find this version (with two songs). "Why we build the wall" is the first, "Our Lady of the Underground" is second. "Why we build the wall" ends at approx 4:00.

You must hear it.



The first song features Greg Brown, the second, Ani DiFranco.

SC Senate investigating Mark Sanford

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford holds forth at a press conference at the Greer DMV on Tuesday. He was mostly baited about the mysterious Maria from Argentina, and the fact that he was not wearing his wedding ring. (Photo by Owen Riley Jr of the Greenville News)

Yeah, sports fans, it got ugly!

~*~


More on the never-ending saga of Mark Sanford:

S.C. Senate's probe of Mark Sanford has little precedent
Only twice before has governor been investigated, historians say
By Tim Smith • Capital bureau • July 24, 2009
Greenville News

COLUMBIA — A Senate subcommittee today will begin what historians are calling an unprecedented investigation of a sitting governor in modern times when it convenes to look into the travel of Gov. Mark Sanford, with the governor and his family in Europe on a two-week vacation.

Sen. David Thomas of Fountain Inn, chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Constitutional Officers, announced the probe last week as part of his panel's oversight responsibilities. He has said it has nothing to do with his race for Congress.

Sanford announced June 24 that he engaged in a yearlong extramarital affair with an Argentine woman, Maria Belen Chapur. He denied spending state resources on the affair, but wrote the state a check for more than $3,000 after admitting he had met Chapur on an economic development trip to Argentina and Brazil in June 2008.

A State Law Enforcement Division review of Sanford's travel expenses on the five trips during which the governor said he met Chapur in Argentina or New York found no wrongdoing, SLED's director announced earlier this month.

Thomas said, however, the SLED review was based entirely on trips volunteered by Sanford. He said he wants a more thorough look at the governor's travel, to see where he went during the dozens of times he told his security detail not to follow him.

“It (the SLED review) only looked at five trips that zeroed in on Chapur,” Thomas said. “It did not look at the mass of trips and the issue that is in front of the committee, which is was there any misappropriation of state funds on non-state-related business.”

The other members of Thomas' three-member subcommittee may not appear today because they are on vacation, Thomas said, but he hopes at least one may attend anyway.

“If they can come, they can come,” he said. “If not, I can at least lay out the outline of what we're going to be doing.”

Thomas had planned to call SLED Director Reggie Lloyd as the panel's first witness but Lloyd said he couldn't make it on Friday, Thomas said. Lloyd is providing a memo about SLED's review but not the agency's formal report on the matter, Thomas said.

Jennifer Timmons, a SLED spokeswoman, said the report is “not available yet.”

The subcommittee's probe of a sitting governor is unusual, according to historians, and unprecedented in modern times.

A.V. Huff, a retired Furman University history professor who chairs the State Archives Commission, said only twice since reconstruction has the Legislature confronted a governor with an investigation or vote of nonsupport.

The last time, he said, was in the 1930s, when then-Gov. Olin Johnston demanded the resignation of the State Highway Commission, which refused, prompting the governor to call out the state militia to surround the agency.

The commission, he said, appealed to the Legislature, which refused to support the governor and the crisis faded.

“It was a political standoff, which I suspect is what is going to happen here,” he said, referring to Sanford.

The Legislature in 1872, Huff said, investigated then-Gov. Franklin Moses Jr. and he was indicted for stealing. Moses then surrounded the governor's mansion with troops to avoid arrest, he said.

University of South Carolina political science Professor Blease Graham said he doesn't know of any other instance in modern times in which lawmakers investigated a sitting governor.

“It is very unusual,” he said.

Officials in Sanford's office have reacted to the probe by Thomas' committee by saying the office will be cooperative but view the inquiry as unnecessary after the SLED review.

Thomas said he has invited other members of the Senate Finance Committee to attend.

He said he hopes the hearings can be finished in 30-45 days. Should the panel need subpoena power, he said it will need to request that from the full finance committee. He said his panel also might simply note that certain witnesses or officials were uncooperative in the subcommittee's report, should that happen.

Senator Thomas claims none of his colleagues have openly opposed the hearings. He says there are "innuendos" and "undercurrents" that he should not be continuing, but nobody has come right out and told him to stop.

I think they call that, talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Stay tuned, sports fans!

Woman murdered in my apartment complex...

... and I still can't believe that, as I read back the title. This is MAYBERRY, people. This kinda stuff only happens in the big cities.

Wrong.

Driving home from work last evening, I saw a cop car hovering outside my complex, then another one exiting the gate as I was entering. We have an entry gate, you know, to keep out the bad people. (What about the bad people already living here?)

As I entered, I saw floodlights, the Fox News van, oodles of cops. I knew it was more than a drug bust, since people were milling around in that weirdly morbid, expectant way you've seen so many times on TV. I knew this meant a dead body.

And it did. Her name was Shivani Boparai and she was only 32 years old. I have probably seen her before, if she lived here for any appreciable length of time. No photos have been published so far.

Her 6-year-old son told neighbors he was locked out; Fox News Carolina initially reported that he was covered in blood. But the door was unlocked, and neighbors discovered Shivani dead from multiple stab wounds. There is some concern that the child may have witnessed this horrible act, but details haven't been released.

When I initially saw all the police cars, I floored my vehicle, pedal to the metal; I wanted inside as fast I as could humanly move. It was an almost unconscious fear that surfaced, that I didn't realize I had...I think I instinctively knew the victim was a woman, somehow. Possibly because this was at home, late on an uneventful, icy-cold weeknight. (Who else would it have been?)

They busted the husband, 37-year-old Harvinder Singh, on his way out of the Wal-Mart... (yes, the very same Wal-Mart I have complained about for over a year).

I guess he needed to do some shopping.

Of course I know that violent crime happens everywhere... and yet somehow, to have it happen so physically close to me, has indeed shaken me. And as a feminist, I am once again reminded that violence against women, wives, mothers, does not take a vacation and you can't keep it out with security gates.

Right now, Singh is being held without bail.

EDITED TO ADD: I can't seem to upload this photo of Shivani--but here is the link.

Christian license tag backers vow to prevail

Well, I'm certainly happy that Andre Bauer's numerous stunts have all been forgiven by the religious right, now that he has publicly partied with the likes of Mike Huckabee and is now showing up at their goofy-ass rallies.

You too can be held at bay by armed law enforcement officers, but still get rated an okay guy by the religious right--as long as you back the correct Christian license plate!

My question: Why is a license plate necessary? Can't they just buy a bumper sticker like everyone else?

Yeesh.

Christian tag backers vow to prevail

McMaster, Bauer among 350 at rally in wake of ruling on 'I Believe' plate

By Anna Lee • STAFF WRITER • GREENVILLE NEWS
January 7, 2009

It was standing room only at People's Baptist Church in Greer on Tuesday night as more than 350 people from around the Upstate rallied to fight a federal judge's ruling on Dec. 11 that halted the state's sale and production of "I Believe" religious license plates.

U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie issued the injunction on the grounds that the plate violated the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause forbidding government from establishing a religion.

The license plate, which was approved by 78 percent of the Legislature, depicts a stained glass window with a cross on it and the words "I Believe" above the tag number.

The rally was organized by the pastor of People's Baptist, the Rev. Arnold Hiette, who said he is fed up that Christians cannot display anything that symbolizes Jesus Christ or Christianity.

"We've lost so many rights as a Christian over the last few years, the right to prayer in public and call the name of Jesus, the prayer in schools, and this, that and the other. ... The people of South Carolina are really stirred up about this," Hiette said.

One Honea Path resident at the rally, Linda Martin, said she came for that same reason -- to stand up for her rights as a Christian.

"We have every other kind of tag you want in the world supporting sports and whatever else. But as Christians we can't have a tag that says 'I believe,'" Martin said.

Christian note: Did she just compare Jesus Christ, the son of God Almighty, to a sports team?!?

(((reads back)))

Yeah, I guess she did.

Wait, here comes the FUNNY PART! Andre Bauer is on the scene!

Guest speakers Attorney General Henry McMaster and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer echoed the crowd's sentiments.

"Total freedom of speech doesn't mean everybody but Christians. When a secular group can get a license plate and nobody challenges it, but Christians can't, there's a problem in the system," Bauer said. "Quite frankly, we're under attack."

Attorney Kevin Hall, who is representing license plate supporters, said the country is being swept by a radical movement where freedom of religion is construed by some to be freedom from religion.

Hall said he, along with McMaster and Bauer, will continue to battle the Dec. 11 ruling and said the case is in limbo as they chart their next steps.

However, Hall does have a plan if the case does not prevail in the courts.

"I will tell you that the name 'I Believe' has been reserved as a corporate name at the Secretary of State's Office in the state of South Carolina," Hall said. "We will take an existing 501(c)(3) corporation, we will change its name to I Believe. We will apply for a license plate at the DMV, and we will dare them to say no."

Can they really do this?

Will I BELIEVE become a CORPORATIZED statement? Does this mean when some poor grandma stitches a sampler with I BELIEVE on it, and then tries to sell it at the county fair, she could be arrested for copyright infringement?

Also, does this mean if Muslims or Hindus try to use I BELIEVE, it will already be patented by Christians, and they can therefore be sued too?

The possibilities are endless.

Play along at home!

Wordless Wednesdays: Signs, signs, everywhere a sign

Sign #1 is a Greenville, South Carolina institution. (Apologies to my fellow vegetarians!)


Sign #2 is from a church in Greer, South Carolina.


Sign #3 is from Cafe and Then Some; a local comedy troupe spoof of the TV show.

----------------
Listening to: Uncle Tupelo - Chickamauga
via FoxyTunes