COLIN ROSS: “WE MUST PRODUCE A BIG ENOUGH DISTURBANCE IN THE SYSTEM”
Dear Editor: Over the next few days I will be working on organizing several ethics complaints to be filed against elected officials in South Carolina. When I first ran for office in the Palmetto State I was very enthusiastic about fixing our education system, maintaining our roads without raising taxes and eliminating our state’s freedom-crushing, job-killing income tax.
However, I have come to the realization that at this point such debates make about as much sense as arguing over which college my friend’s newborn baby will attend eighteen years from now.
There really is only one issue that matters and must be addressed before we talk about anything else: Ethics reform.
All of South Carolina’s top leaders are talking about ethics reform right now, but it seems the longer it gets debated at the S.C. State House the farther away we get from anything meaningful passing. I’ve come to the conclusion that making our state government more transparent is far to important to be left to the State House. In fact if you believe that our current officials will do anything on this issue please send me your voter registration card so that I can incinerate it.
This is why I will be filing these ethics complaints against our legislators. In doing so, there is no single leader we must take down because individual legislators, no matter how corrupt, are not the real problem.
We must produce a big enough disturbance in the system so that our “leaders” have no choice but to adopt the eight points of transparency put forth by the S.C. Policy Council. Our current system could corrupt almost anyone as it allows legislators to personally enrich themselves with almost no risk of repercussion. If they ever get caught, all they have to do is say “hey I looked into it and I found out I did nothing wrong!”
Such a system must come to an end if South Carolina is ever going to move forward. In an increasingly competitive and mobile world, governments such as ours will need to adapt to allow their states to attract and create new businesses. In short business have more choice then ever about their location, and its hard to see why any business would ever come here unless our leaders bribe them with taxpayers’ money.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Once we have real ethics reform then we can focus our energies on creating a great business environment. That includes lower taxes, better schools, and roads that don’t crack your windshield every week. I would ask that every south Carolina citizen join me in the fight to make our state government more open and accountable to its citizens.
It should be important to those of every political philosophy and it really is the only fight that matters.
Yours in liberty,
Colin Ross
Charleston, S.C.
SIC SEZ
Colin: As noted in FITS exclusive report regarding your forthcoming ethics complaints, this website stands 100 percent behind any and all efforts to expose the self-serving behavior of South Carolina’s leaders – as well as the self-policing “ethics” system that permits them to act with impunity. I wish you the best of luck.
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67 comments
I hope Lee Bright is nervous about this. That he has done all he can to kill ethices reform is telling. Go get em, Ross.
The only thing Lee Bright is nervous about is his creditors meeting him in the bathroom of a fast food restaurant. Or if state law limits one’s trips to the buffet to six.
Go after the unethical constitutional officers too. Start with the Wade Hampton building.
I heard the Ethics Commission is already investigating a certain official in the Hampton building.
Young man, truly you are a problem. Don’t you know that we are entitled to whatever we harvest from out State positions. We are entitled because we are the great ruling class. Here in SC you are entitled to position, wealth and power based on your Party, your name, your Daddy and your position within the local tribal councils in upstate and the midlands. How dare you question our authority or our right to lead this State as we see fit. Upstarts like yourself are simply northern commie trouble makers. That you hail from that liberal bastion of sewage called the Low Country, with it’s snotty Charlestonian tea shops and pressed kaki pants and wearing loafers without socks, is not surprising.
Not being able to question authority is a pretty dangerous idea. You can’t accept authority at face value, especially when they become big and are virtually incapable of any repercussion for anything that is deemed unethical, immoral, and overall kowtowing the line of what is legal and illegal. It’s pretty disturbing to think that you’d call someone “entitled” when they feel that there’s an ethical dilemma that they must encounter and bring forth into the spotlight. It’s dangerous, backwards, and people like you who live in the past and accept authority at face value are an issue in this society. I don’t agree with everything on this website, and it would be foolish for me to do so. But, I feel as if you have missed the entire point. What’s good for the goose is not always good for the gander. What are you taking out of this to not question those who are in power? Isn’t questioning those who are in power a part of our Constitution for a reason? When government gets too big, even state government, it is up to us to weed out the corruption and force change. This is more than entitlement, or party values. This is about dissolving your party biases, looking at your home, your neighborhood, your town or city, and thinking “What’s going on here?” When you finally are capable of doing this, then you realize that those who are in power are very immoral in the way they leech off our taxes, force us into poverty, and tell us that they’re doing the best they can. When lobbying and campaigning have become MORE important than fixing things as a whole, and abandoning core party ideologies, then it’s a problem. That’s why you question authority. You HAVE to have checks and balances, and you HAVE to have the ability to see past all those smiling faces, the bureaucratic nonsense (that reminds me more and more of the dystopia from the film Brazil.) It’s INSANE to think that you just accept the force feeding of lies and broken promises, and you don’t question why you’re continuing to swallow any of it.
Question them at your peril!!!!
I’ve been there.
We all need to question them collectively, not individually. We need to put our differences aside and do something that actually changes the system, and doesn’t continue the cycle of corporate corruption in the statehouse, Congress, or the White House.
We need to work as a collective consciousness, not as individual leeches. It’s like throwing a rock at an alligator: you aren’t going to do anything more than just piss it off, and then it’ll come slithering after you like the degenerate reptile he is. No, you need hundreds of rocks pelting him in order for him to be wounded enough to submit. That’s why we need to abandon our ideologies and our personal opinions and actually figure out things using constructive, well reasoned, and organized arguments. We also need to use our critical thinking skills that most of us didn’t learn in SC public schools (who would have thought those would come in handy huh?) But in all seriousness, it’s difficult to get everyone on board because most people here are so brainwashed and indoctrinated into the system, and party ideologies and bullshit lies are so ingrained into their psyches, that it affects everyone who’s logical, and has a semblance of what reality truly is. It’s going to take a lot of work TT, but we can do it. I almost, maybe, have just a miniscule inkling of hope this could happen.
Also, Rocky, thanks for being a voice of reason in a time where I’m called a dumbocrat and shelved into a two-sided argument when I’m trying so desperately to escape into the less crowded middle. I appreciate you not calling me names, and stating that your argument was tongue-in-cheek satire. I’m proud to say I’m glad I have an ally who can look past our political differences and actually have a reasonable discussion, whether we agree or not. That’s the difference between most in this haven of hatred and vitriol, and reasonable individuals like yourself.
Well shit – that will get you called all sorts of names by Grand Tango Pork Chop. You may regret the day you said something nice about me once Pork Chop gets started.
Fake Grand Tango doesn’t scare me. He entertains me with his wistful and insightful comments about how Bush was right, and about how Obama isn’t Christian or American. He makes me guffaw and then chortle for minutes on end with his ignorance. He can call me whatever he pleases, because whatever he comes up with will be in ignorant Redneckanese.
Kindly remember that it’s the one-party government in SC that controls education. Critical thinking skills are anathema to the plantation economy they seek to keep in place in SC. Ask why Amazon didn’t keep to the agreement regarding jobs and wages. Ask why Boeing located here and paid employees less than half of what they were paying employees in other plants. Ask why SC residents subsidized these businesses. Ask what happened to Mack Truck as soon as the tax breaks expired (NOTE: it had nothing to do with the union, and EVERYTHING to do with free money from the state).
Absolutely! You are a voice of reason. It has NOTHING to do with unions, that’s just fear mongering towards the weak minded idiots that populate the state. What’s truly scary is why they’re getting tax breaks, and we’re carrying the weight of those if and when they decide to leave. Hint: it has a lot to do with politicians getting campaign donations and has a lot do with those corporations saving money. They don’t care about you, they care about how much money they can sponge up, and how long they can keep that sponge saturated with the money of honest tax payers without wringing it out and letting us hydrate and flourish a bit.
Mr Brain – I agree. My comment was tongue and cheek. But because SC is ruled by one party, and only one party, with fat BBQ munching old boy slobs (though I too like BBQ in moderation) – their entire attitude toward the citizens is “don’t question us, we’re the ruling class.” I wish I could say it’s a new thing but it’s not. Only the Party name has changed. Solomon Blatt, Edgar Brown, Joseph Harley, all of the Barnwell Ring in the 1940s. No different than Jackie Knotts and others from the Lexington County circles. The truth is the elected officials of SC believe they are entitled to their jobs. Look at Wilson, Daddy’s the Congressman. Haley. On down the line. There are no checks and balances in SC. There’s just Gervais Street, Assembly, to Taylor to Sumter – and all the rare beef and high end booze these swine can take down their throats. If you don’t play in that rectangle, you’re out of the loop. Period. And it’s sickening. We need a Carroll Campbell – but I fear even someone with his honor would be purchased with Brazlian Steakhouse and good scotch.
We need a Carroll Campbell who isn’t Antisemitic, and who actually fights for our freedoms instead of bedding themselves with the corporations. Nikki Haley is a corporatist first, a fascist at heart, and a true representation of the idiocy that plagues our state’s economic and infrastructure collapse. It’s not just Haley though, it’s all of them. We need real government that isn’t corrupted by its own greed and personal political gain. You see it on both sides, not just one. When she says she’s bringing in corporations to the state in order to create jobs, she’s manipulating the masses into thinking that she’s a jobs creator. In reality, those corporations are getting tax breaks because it’s so cheap to hire people who are desperate enough to work for barely above minimum wage. It’s also about how most of the right wing conservatives would wish upon the masses a basic standard of Christian law that could, and would supersede federal law and would bring us back to the dark ages. We’re a nation founded on religious freedom, not a Christian nation but a melting pot. I feel as if people vote with their faith more than they vote for their own personal well being. All the Charlatans who pretend to be so moral, and religious, are those who are truly corrupted. Why does it matter if a person is Christian, or has a faith as long as they represent people’s freedoms to believe as they choose, live as they choose, and think as they choose. It’s not going to affect me until it’s pushed onto my daily life. That’s only part of the problem though. Unfortunately, it’s everything that money represents in government (state, federal, executive, legislative) that’s killing us slowly and turning us into robots. I’m not mocking people’s beliefs by the way, all I’m saying is that when people vote based on faith and morality, it’s usually those who are most affected by the system and who are beguiled by the elite. I don’t subscribe to bipartisan ideology for these reasons, and nobody should. There should be no political parties, only reason and logic.
Don’t forget the corrupt judges!
Amen to that!
They are ruled and told how to rule by Toal! God forbid you are on the opposite side of a case she has an interest in! You are screwed with NO chance! I’ve been there!
The Family Court Judge was moved to the Federal Bench shortly after screwing me for a Toal relative!
The judges bend over for the lawyer-legislators on the most trivial of cases just as readily as they submit to Toal.
The Judges may be the most corrupt of them all.
They are whores to who controls them. And the records and history proves that (Casey Manning is a good example).
Magistrate Adams in Lexington isn’t any better. Rules only apply when she decides they do. Win against a business in her court? She’ll just shaft you on the judgment using her “discretion”.
OK, shine some light on them
Reminds me of the late 50’s early 60’s eating at Momma Kate’s Drive-In on upper King Street Extension
There was always entertainment when someone from the kitchen took the garbage out. No sooner than a fresh container hit the ground the cockroaches and rats would emerge.
The rats were the size of cats and the cockroaches were the size of rats. Momma Kate’s food was that good
Going after the rats and the cockroaches is indeed a noble deed. However, until you cut off their food supply the sons of bitches will never disappear
” However, until you cut off their food supply the sons of bitches will never disappear”
EXACTLY!
Not in favor of “freedom-crushing” income tax. But isn’t it remarkable how SC does not mind sucking the taxed teets of other states.
The State Legislature is interested in only doing enough to look like it’s doing something to try and shoo the Feds off the trail.
Feds have backed off because Clyburn is so tied in with the corruption. Just as was the case in the fed probe of Horry corruption. If Clyburn were to croak, they’d be all over all of this shit — Horry/Lowcountry, Midlands, Upstate, both bodies of the state legislature, and all major elected and appointed offices. Even the well-known Nettles-Toal crony relationship could not stand against the onslaught.
“The State Legislature is interested in only doing enough to look like it’s doing something”
State agencies, notably much of DHEC’s environmental portion, are interested in only doing enough to look like they are doing something. It’s an MO, an SOP.
You get involved in politics with every thought of helping. After a couple of years you learn to wheel,deal and get what you can for yourself or get out. Because those leading will tear you apart if you do not deal. Politics are the most corrupt form of anything in the world simply because of the power they control.Look how one man,Obama has destroyed America and if you think am wrong it will see withing the next few years. You are going to see things you will not believe.
Another brain-dead Fox News moron. Get it straight: Obama inherited a country engaged in two wars, a destroyed economy and a worldwide reputation in ruins. Given the devastation caused by Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, I’d say he has done remarkably well.
Another dumbacrat always passing the blame huh? That is why you are an idiot, as well as an “entitled” little turd that supports someone who wont ever do jack shit to help this county only destroy it.
There is no need to pass the blame. You and your ilk have already compromised the country and are attempting to make it even weaker with idiot proposals like the Oklahoma AP course elimination and the impossibly moronic conversation of who loves the country and who does not. With people like Walker and Haley in public life, there is little hope of the U.S. competing successfully in the 21st century.
Both parties suck, and both parties got us exactly where we are. Including creating ISIS.
I believe that in my argument that I stated that both parties are to blame for every single mess we’re in. The machine minds of these machine men are controlling every facet of our daily lives in order to profit off of ALL of us. It’s so cute when you’re still so indoctrinated into all the complexities of politics, and you think that one side is more right that another. It’s cute, and naive, and really, really sad. I think if you take your party bias out of the mix, you look at both sides for once without judgment, you’ll see that citizen’s united and super-pacs are destroying this nation on BOTH SIDES. It’s fascist, and it’s not American, and you sir are NOT American because you’ll continue to keep yourself in the dark about the corporations and the potential foreign interests that could potentially invest in, and profit off of you. 6 corporations control 90% of the media. Do you want THEM to tell you what’s right, or wrong? Do you really think that you have a voice, or make your own decisions, and have free will? Of course not, because you’re willing to sell your soul and buy in to all of this nonsense, and that’s amazing to me.
You can’t reason with people who have been programmed and brainwashed. Anytime anyone mentions Obama is usually going to call them the antichrist, Satan incarnate, or anything else. He’s just a terrible politician who I at one point trusted. Then I realized that party bias is bullshit. Look where he makes money, and look where Bush and his cronies made money. All they are are figureheads for the corporate elite who actually control what’s going on because they have unlimited access to congress through citizen’s united, and they have unlimited super-pacs that they invest in so that they can continue to make billions off of our misery. There’s a reason I don’t go to church, have a subscription to cable, and call myself a humanist and an individualist.
For the most part you are correct! But what has church got to do with it,maybe the church you speak of is run politically also?
Politicians are in bed with the churches, yes. You can’t get elected in South Carolina (or in many states) without some form of religious background. The politicians use political and religious rhetoric in order to manipulate those that are most vulnerable and susceptible to their lies. They like to make non-issues issues in order to blind the masses into believing that little Susie who got an abortion last week, or Johnny and Joe getting married in May is more important that our infrastructure, economic status, and our foreign policy (plus fighting invisible enemies like drugs and “terrorists.) It’s time to lay down the law. No more religion in politics. There is freedom of religion, yes. But there is also this: “Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion.” It means keep them separate, because everyone has individual rights and beliefs, and the beliefs of many are not the beliefs of most. Thus, when politicians are tied into the church, and they use religion to gain people’s trust, and exploit their naivete, then they’re establishing a law of religion, and not a law of the land.
Yo Mama,
I’ve been there and what I speak of comes from first hand knowledge. Obama made things worse instead of better and he has a bunch of inept folks running the government. I do not exonerate the Republicans, especially in South Carolina because most of the are really Democrats that run as Republicans to get elected. That is where the electorate is being fooled and divided. There is not two cents worth of difference in them all.
But I had the first hand knowledge of watching 12 Million dollars in a small town evaporate and when asked about wasting and bankrupting the town the reply I got was we can always raise taxes.Excuse me but to hell with you and everyone that thinks like you Obozo! Unfortunately my kids,grandchildren and loved ones will pay for this ineptness!
Not a brain-dead FOX zombie, but Obama put the insurance round into the back of the country’s head.
I wish this guy luck. I hope he picks up some traction.
Too chicken to join the movement? Grow some hair on your chest and a big old set of balls.
After you file them it’s not legal to tell that you did. So you should tell the world now who you’re filing against. That’s the only way they’ll be investigated. And don’t just tell Fits. Confirm them to msm reporters–you can’t after you file.
Exactly. Don’t shun news releases to the MSN, because they will be far more likely to jump on this than any non-libertarian “conservative” or “Republican” news venues. Simple reason being that South Carolina dysfunction SELLS!
FITS as the standard bearer for ETHICS….
HahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahLMAO…..
HahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahHahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahL
And you’re the metric for sanity….
Hey FITS…Scott Walker Crammed it up your anus…and told you to kiss his @$$…
He does not know if Obama is a Christian…(neither do I)….
I bet that will have you S#!tt!#g all over yourselves….LMAO…
Scott Walker? Isn’t that librarian at Clemson?
I didn’t say some Dude who crammed it up your anus between some bookshelves when you worked as a janitor at Clemson…
I said the Republican who has the media figuratively crapping all over itself…because he refused to play their hate-game…
CRICKETS….LMAO…
You MoFos labor all day long, trying to be glib…and when you are confronted with some truly funny $#!t…you all haul @$$…Hahahaha…
Meet me at the main entrance to USC’s law library @ 9 pm on 02/27/15. I will be with 3 other very large black men wearing USC football jackets and hats. If you do not show, you are a PUSSY!
Gay porn much???….LMAO…
Oh, that guy, who’s gonna lose to Bush, and polls so poorly against Hillary Clinton nobody knows his name. Yeah, right. That guy – college drop-out candidate? Hey, how’s he planning on fixing that huge deficit in WI – I thought he was a real economic go-getter power house. Seems maybe he ain’t so great.
You think the Democrats in the US Congress will run in fear from Walker, like the Dum@$$ Ds in Wisc. did???…LMAO…Now that was F*#king Funny…
You are some Stupid Mofos…How bout the failed recall…????…LMAO…Idiots….
Doesn’t “whistleblower” imply inside knowledge of wrongdoing? How would this nimrod have inside knowledge of anything? Wouldn’t “rumormonger” be more accurate?
The House and Senate Ethics Committees are a total sham! The State Ethics Committee is not much better.
I personally filed complaints against sitting Legislators, only to be told they had done nothing wrong!
The situation: a piece of property where the legislators requested and received State funds to develop water and sewer to vacant property. The reason was for “Economic Development and the creation of jobs” in a poor area of the State. Approximately 2-3 months after the funds were awarded, the property transferred to one of the Legislators. The value of property had been greatly increased due to the water and sewer lines, now serving the said property. This was discovered with a follow up audit, which I routinely carried out. As far as I am aware, the audits stopped after my retirement.
I filed an Ethics complaint and was told the Legislators had done nothing wrong. One received the property, the other did the Engineering work, both benefited! The old “I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine” is alive and well! Both benefited financially, at State Taxpayer expense. The location was a low Country Town/County where there have been ethical and legal problems in the past.
There are others and the beat goes on. I see what these people did as illegal; no different in my opinion, than what the Governor, Harrell and many others have done and continue to do daily.
Corrupt legislatures beware. The People of South Carolina are coming for your heads. Over 1 million residents stand behind Colin Ross, and those numbers are fast growing. Everybody has had it with the corruption. Nothing is going to stop the people from taking you down – stripping of you everything you own – and throwing your fucked up assess in prison. You and your cronies can try all you will to stop We The People, however, all your dirty illegal and criminal tactics will not work this time. There are too many of us rising up. And no need to put on your sheep skins – alleging you are with the People of South Carolina. Too late for that. LMAO!!
Oh, were it only so.
Bring back tarring and feathering — in all of its previous forms..!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarring_and_feathering
Let’s not forget about the ban on Dueling…..
State Ethics and State Ethic reform is a sorry ass attempt at “Jedi Mind Tricks.”
www . judicialwatch . org …… Rise Up Against SC Legislature … Remove All Of The White Collar Criminals From Office, NOW! …… Voter Recall Bill is Imperative and must be rammed down your elected representatives throat. The time is here, the time is now. Rise up and unite. Join the movement to force federal prosecution of the elected crooks. We all have seen that former State House Speaker Bobby Harrell received a mere slap on the back of the hand. There is no more federal investigation going on. Anyone reading between the lines can see that.
!0-4
I will make a bet. If all of the Liberals in here fathers actually knew them they would be proud!
English, speak it???
Godspeed!
It is the money that continually changes hands at the root here. We no longer have representative democracy. We have corporation represented democracy paid for by those same corporations who write laws passed by our legislators that we are then forced to live under. Blow it up, I say.
We no longer have representative democracy in SC nor America. We now have Corporate Representative Democracy. The very money behind our elections, later, write laws passed by those elected. We are all forced to live under these corporate sponsored laws.
The system has been hijacked for sure.
I have no idea whether or not all of this stuff about Loftis is true. I hope it isn’t. One thing is clear, however. There is a concerted effort to get the focus completely off of the Haley-Kitzman relationship, and it has all the earmarks of paid political operatives doing all the posts. Do the people responsible for this not realize that if the allegations about Loftis are true, he will surely retaliate tenfold? The old Cold War term “Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)” comes to mind.
What does Haley – Kitzman have to do with this article. It sounds as if this commenter is making a threat toward someones mother. Very strange.