Welcome to the wire! Our pseudo-daily effort to engage the barrage of tips, questions, comments and snippets we receive on a daily basis.
Today is February 5, 2013 – a.k.a. “National Pancake Day.” It’s also a big day in South Carolina politics as a new conservative think tank championed by former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint makes its big debut. News of this new organization broke exclusively on FITS yesterday (click here for our coverage), but today is the group’s official launch.
In other news which broke exclusively on our site, the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) announced its intention to “regionalize” seventeen offices. Democrats in the S.C. General Assembly are planning a press conference related to this issue today – although it’s not immediately clear what they plan on saying. FITS has also obtained more insider info from SCDEW which will shed additional light on this chronically mismanaged agency of S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s cabinet.
In South Carolina’s Upstate, there’s a special election today to fill the S.C. House District 17 seat vacated by newly elected State Senate Tom Corbin. The favorite in that race? Chris Sullivan, who ran unsuccessfully for State Senate a year ago against incumbent Mike Fair (RINO-Greenville).
Nationally, political observers are wondering whether a viable “Republican” candidate for the U.S. Senate will emerge in deep blue Massachusetts after Tagg Romney – son of former Bay State governor Mitt Romney – declined to run. Meanwhile we’re wondering how much longer people will continue to believe there’s a nickel’s worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans – whether in Massachusetts or here in South Carolina.
Also, politicos across the country are still buzzing about House of Cards, a new original Netflix series based in Washington, D.C. starring Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright and Kate Mara. We’ve written once already about the series – which portrays Spacey as a ruthless Democrat from the South Carolina Upstate pulling the strings of the federal government – but now that we’ve got a few episodes under our belt we’ll be examining the series in more detail.
Starting with the lovely Mara …
To the wire!
SC SENATE 2014: LEE BRIGHT
Lee Bright is running against Lindsey Graham? What a nut …
FITS: Yes, but he votes the right way on fiscal issues.
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SC SENATE 2014: BRIGHT SPEAKS
Lee Bright is “disputing” your story about his Senate candidacy. He tells The Hill he is merely “leaning toward” a run against Lindsey Graham, not definitively running. Once again FITS is making things up.
FITS: Just watch …
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SC-1: TEDDY TURNER PANDERS ON IMMIGRATION
Teddy Turner is running on the typical Republican douchebag message. Last Saturday he said we need to close the borders because there are 12 million unemployed and 11 million illegal immigrants. Therefore we solve our unemployment problem by kicking them out. So he is either lying to pander to mouth breathers or he really views our economy as a zero sum game. I really hope its the former. He also keeps saying that success is a horrible teacher but shouldn’t you have to accomplish something before you run for congress.
FITS: Hmmmm … well we’ve made our views on immigration quite clear. As for success being a horrible teacher, we wouldn’t know much about that …
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LEXINGTON RING
Saw on WLTX News tonight where Mayor Randy Halfacre of the town of Lexington and town councilman Danny Frazier sitting on a stage smiling and laughing like none of the corrupt and unethical things he has admitted to about his part in the illegal video poker businesses he is involved in.
When are these public officials, like Sheriff James Metts, Danny Frazier, former senator Jakie Knotts and any other officials in law enforcement going to be indicted? This is beyond embarrassing now.
FITS: Criminals avoiding responsibility for their actions is nothing new in South Carolina, but we agree … in the case of the “Lexington Ring,” it has become as you say, “beyond embarrassing.”
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MORE LEXINGTON RING
I have been reading stories of sheriff James Metts working with the (S.C. State Law Enforcement Division) on raids on video poker machines in Lexington County. If SLED knows that Metts has taking money from the poker industries and he was not enforcing video poker laws in lexington county and after that scorching interview with jody barr, why in the hell is sled including Metts’ corrupt ass on any criminal investigation on illegal video poker machines in Lexington County?
FITS: Agreed. Metts’ involvement in any video poker raid is totally hypocritical.
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A “CLARENDON RING?”
Clarendon County Sheriff Randy Garrett received campaign money from a sweepstakes machine company from Florida. The manager of these stores is Mike Riles who gave the Sheriff a thousand dollars along with his wife who gave a thousand dollars. Also Riles’ company gave the Sheriff a thousand dollars. There are poker machines all over Clarendon County and the Sheriffs Department does absolutely no enforcement. Almost every country store has poker machines. Also the Sheriff has several girlfriends in which he gets deputies to drive him to meet his girlfriends. There is so much more. SLED came to Clarendon County and busted several sweepstakes locations and didn’t let the Sheriff know they were doing it.
FITS: Again, we believe all of these machines should be legal. Our current system of corrupt politicians and crooked law enforcement officers selectively enforcing the law – often to their own personal or political benefit – is shameless.
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ASCOT MURDERS REQUEST
I have debated the appropriateness of sending this request for the past several months and have now made the decision to do so only out of sincere concern. I understand the limited nature of information provided initially on the Ascot Estates case in April of 2012 and the hope to make sense of the tidbits of information given by various sources, but it’s difficult to conceptualize the fact that less-than-accurate information still floats on the web about individuals concerned in the case who have meant very much to me. Preserving legacies and researching histories becomes a challenging task when faced with stories of this nature on the internet. In having said this, I would be sincerely and unduly grateful if the stories entitled “Suburban Shooting Back Story” (published April 14, 2012) and “Charges Coming in Suburban Shooting?” (published May 29, 2012), both released before a charge was filed in the case, were removed from your webpage. I intend no offense by my request and have little knowledge of what it may require, but I can only say my gratitude will run far if and/or when my request is processed.
My thanks,
Concerned South Carolinian
FITS: So let’s get this straight. We were the first news outlet to CORRECTLY report that there was a gambling component to these slayings. Then we were the first media outlet to CORRECTLY report that charges were coming against the individual who allegedly perpetrated the crime? And you want us to remove these posts due to “less-than-accurate” information? Yeah … you can kiss our asses.
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TODD KINCANNON IS STILL TWEETING
Did you see this? Classy? No.
FITS: Todd Kincannon tweeted something offensive? Stop the presses!
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28th AMENDMENT
Did you know U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bill to ban assault weapons includes an exemption for all government officials/ employees? Ridiculous! And the definition of hypocrisy! I hope you will join me in supporting a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution demanding that Congress pass no law they are not willing to abide by themselves.
FITS: We’ve got no problem with that …
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SOMEBODY CALL SNOPES.COM …
I’m sure the crack staff at Snopes.com will refute the factuality of these images, but there’s an email chain going around claiming they were part of some German parade recently. True or not, these are funny, funny pics …
(Click to enlarge)
FITS: Ha! Du bist ein schlingel …
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OBAMACARE TO TRIPLE PREMIUMS ON HEALTHY YOUNG MEN
Remember all those Obamacare promises? Here is the reality. Premiums for young men in good health are going to increase by 190 percent.
FITS: We wrote recently about this. No shocker.
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BARACK OBAMA’S NEW MILITARY POLICY
Obama is dismissing military officers who refuse to fire on U.S. civilians – and this report is coming from a left winger, not someone in Anderson County, S.C. So maybe there’s something to it?
FITS: So the fact it comes from a left winger makes it credible?
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PHONE RECORDS MEAN SOMETHING IN NEBRASKA
If only Nikki Haley had done the honorable thing like this guy.
FITS: This again?
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MORE KATE
You missed the best picture of Kate Harpootlian in your recent post about her …
(Click to enlarge)
FITS: Wow-zas … and thank you for helping us correct such a glaring omission.
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TODAY’S TUNEAGE: “HUMAN BEHAVIOUR”
(Click to play)
“You better be ready to get confused …”
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GOT A TIPS FOR US? Or a comment? Or a question? Submit it anonymously over on our tip line or our contact page … and remember, in addition to your tips we also publish letters to the editor and guest editorials (even anonymous ones) if you’ve got more to say on a subject. Need to send something through the mail? Our address is P.O. Box 5230 Columbia, S.C. 29250.
Also feel free to reach out to our founding editor directly at w@fitsnews.com … or via Twitter or Facebook.
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36 comments
about the Obama dismissing military leaders for not firing on US citizens. The report wasnt simply coming from a “left winger” it was coming from a retired military leader and nobel peace prize winner. and someone who has made a career out of not making outlandish political statements. And he is hearing it from military officials who have been “relieved” of their command. Figured yall would be all over that.
When it’s in the Air Force/Army/Navy or Defense Times I’ll believe it.
Other than that this is just more of right wing-nut bullshit.
Just like the bullshit concerning the feds buying up all available hollow points (Ref: NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action press release dated 17 August 2012)
All these right wing-nuts are tin-foil hat wearing dumbasses who look for a federal conspiracy under every rock because they probably haven’t gotten laid in the last 10 years.
Maybe we ought to put all these dumb-fucks in camps after all..They won’t be happy till we do anyway because that’s what these dickheads want!!!
I say give them what they want!!!
May I also suspect BS? Surely a retired military leader and Nobel Peace prize winner has a name?
Tomstickler:
You are right.
Everytime someone O-6 or above (sometimes even O-5’s) gets the boot, Air Force/Army/Navy or Military Times is all over it.
I call BS on this as well…….
But what do you expect from right wing-nuts???
They are not happy unless there is a conspiracy under every rock.
Douche-bags all!!!
Well, if either of you had bothered to click on the link, you would have seen a name. The source is actually a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, with an honest-to-goodness name, and he chose to leave his military source unnamed. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean the report is accurate, but is a strong indication that you two won’t bother to do basic research, even when it is laid out before you, if it has anything to do with painting Barry in a bad light.
did you read the article?
Dr Jim Garrow
Like I said, when I read it in a reputable outlet or on StratFor.com and not some fucking link then I’ll believe this nonsense.
And for your information, I don’t give a Rat’s Ass about “Barry” but it sure as hell looks like you aluminum foil hat wearing cranks sure do.
Somebody’s got to start calling Bullshit on all the paranoid wackos who think there is some damn conspiracy under every rock or behind every tree.
Looks like I’m it but in all honesty I might as well bang my head against a wall because a lot of you cranks don’t live in the real world anyway and there is nothing anyone can do to convince you otherwise.
Do they teach reading comprehension in your “real world,” or has all that head banging you do compromised your cognitive skills?
Like I said, I don’t know if the claim is true, just like you don’t. I just pointed out the simple fact that a name was available to you if you bothered to do a tiny bit of looking. The link was there, so use it, then judge for yourself the veracity of the information.
Or, just stick your head in the sand. Doesn’t matter much to me, but when you spout off like you know something, when in reality you don’t, I’ll continue to call you on it. Just like your foggy memory on the intent behind the “quote” you mentioned from “Verbatum” (sic).
Oh, and as for Barry, unless you voted for Romney, you care, at least a little. But you keep telling yourself you don’t, little fellah. And have another crayon!
I’m not sure how believable it is myself, but considering this:
reason.com/blog/2013/02/04/someone-just-leaked-obamas-rules-for-ass
…it isn’t something that should be brushed off so quickly. Anonymous sources may not always have verifiable credibility, but there’s more than one piece of this puzzle lying around.
the guardian guardian.co.uk just reported that they have a leaked DoJ docs showing the arguments made for “legal” drone attacks on US citizens.
Todd is an ugly douche. And I’m surprised that you haven’t really reported on the allegations that three women made about his texting habits. (For those interested, google it). You only touched on one of them, and it was in defense of him.
Are you two buddies?
Well, Todd is his consulting attorney from my understanding…so it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine they are buds.
In fairness to Sic, he tells everyone “Unfair. Inbalanced.”
Yeah, it’s just the sort of thing that he usually jumps all over.
He should probably keep better company, IMO.
He jumped all over the one chick who tweeted pix of her vajayjay. Posted the pix here. What more do you want?
Quid — I read that article. I was more interested in the backstory that led to that. And the allegations made by two other women.
….. Aaah, the lovely Kate – she makes me sigh and think of gloecken, and campanilla, and tanna we ranna, and giling galang, and skillibjallo, and (yes) even — klokkeblomst!
Your political effigy pix were from a previous Rosenmontag parade in Mainz, Germany. They like to get a day’s head start over Mardi Gras.
The 175th edition starts at 11:11AM on 11 February 2013. I have before me a gold-foil chocolate coin from the 150th Jahre parade.
Helau!
…..Damn! Another power surge that screwed up my Fitsnews – these solar flares are hell – original articles are showing up as——
MARK SANFORD’S HOUSE OF CARDS
THE QUEEN IS PISSED… GET READY TO RUMBLE
CRUISE SHIP WAR: DARLA VS NIKKI 2
CANDACE BESSINGER WILL RUN FOR US SENATE
THAD VIERS GOT INDICTED… WAITING ON A VERDICT
HOLY HARPOOTLIAN EXPECTATIONS GAME
TIME TO ORGASM LADIES: TEXT MESSAGE GOLD MINE
clear your cache
Been having to do that quite often recently. Not sure if there’s changes going on in the site that are screwing with my browser or what. Odd.
Something funny is going on. I’ve refreshed, cleared my cached, cleared my internet history, but I still cannot get this site to update beyond this article — even though I read the updated articles earlier today.
Yet my iphone browswer is working just fine.
I bet Sparkle City thinks it’s a conspiracy from all those right wing-nuts and tin-foil hat wearing dumbasses that haven’t gotten laid in the last 10 years.
Sometimes, all one has to do to identify an idiot is listen to what they say or read what they write.
Yea, health premiums will triple!!!! no wait, they will quadruple!!!!
More trash from a conservative site. The law is in effect. Yes, 2014 is the full-on date but can any LOGICAL person not believe if insurance companies really saw the chance/need that they wouldn’t go ahead and be charging?????
The sky is not falling….the Act is far from perfect and changes will come to it as we go forward. But all this other horseshit is just that, horseshit.
Just FYI: You have really made Queen Jean mad. I mean, furious. She finally got John Monk and the rest at The State under control and pretty much has muzzled WLTX and WIS, then you come out and ruin her plans for re-alignment of her House of Cards. If you think she and Harpo have not talked about you several times this week, you are living in a dream world. The crap poor Dan S and Costa have to hear is really amazing. Stephanie just laughs it off.
Comments like these are one of the main reasons I keep coming back.
Why do I still have the feeling she will have the last word on this? Or at least scorching retribution?
That moment when you realize “the dyke has sprouted a leak….”
The funniest thing is to watch all the idiots in Irmo and Chapin gushing over the newly-convicted Lanny Gunter. Two dead people in Ascot and folks are acting like Lanny is the victim.
More Mara pictures please. Freckles, real red hair, gorgeous, hanging teatons. Thank you.
No more Harpootlian pictures, please. Too skinny, no meat.
The reason Mayor Halfacre and others are laughing on TV is they know they got over on the public and law enforcement yet again. Jokes on all you smug Rednexington citizens. You got a corrupt county and by the way that weeble Kent Collins you elected to county council is a fucking joke.
The reason Mayor Halfacre and others are laughing on TV is they know they got over on the public and law enforcement yet again. Jokes on all you smug Rednexington citizens. You got a corrupt county and by the way that weeble Kent Collins you elected to county council is a fucking joke.
Okay, fresh browser session and this page becomes the first post on the front page again. I have it set to private browsing so I know when I close this thing it clears everything out from the last session. What the hell is going on?
No kidding. I need my hit of Fits this am.
In the immortal words of General George Armstrong Custer as he looked out over the plains of the Little Big Horn,
Goddamn, that’s a lot of mother fucking Indians
Perhaps willie is finding out that getting it up ain’t as easy as it sounds, the new website that is
Same issue for me as well. No matter what I do on this browser, this is still the top story, even though yesterday I was able to access some updates before they disappeared.
iphone browser is working fine, though.
Spot on, owb.
…. Hey, folks, I just checked back in. My post yesterday showing how I scrambled the article headlines – that was a JOKE! But now I see what you are talking about – just have to wait for updates——-
I hope my joke didn’t cause this – or Will is playing one on us?