Free Republic

Watch out, animals of South Florida: It's a wild world out there. There are five species of foreign snakes just waiting to eat you. More troublingly, according to a U.S. Geological Survey report released Tuesday, nonnative snakes like the Burmese python could slither their way north from the warm, humid conditions of South Florida. The big snakes threaten native species and ecosystems because they mature and reproduce quickly, travel long distances and can eat almost anything in fur, feathers or scales, experts say. The 302-page report could be a step toward a ban on importing constrictor-like snakes into the U.S.,...

President Obama gave a nod yesterday to a budding bipartisan Senate effort on energy and climate legislation during a New Orleans town hall meeting where he also pledged to push for the bill's passage once Congress finishes its work on health care. "What I think we need to do is increase our domestic energy production," Obama said in response to a question about environmental policy from an audience member. "I'm in favor of finding environmentally sound ways to tap our oil and our natural gas." Obama also mentioned his support for nuclear energy, one of two key points of possible...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain. Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. As McCain, on the heels of his presidential election defeat, has distanced himself from Democrats, Graham has moved in to fill the vacuum.

According to most conservatives in South Carolina, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has officially gone over to the dark side. Under the guise of 'bipartisanship,' Graham has signed on to one of the left's most ambitious plans to impose a socialist agenda in America - government control of the formerly free market through implementation of cap-and trade, the 1,400 plus page Waxman-Markey bill approved earlier this year by the House. The main (scientifically unproven) premise of cap and trade is that the earth is melting and government must step in to save the world. Of course, it will be expensive, but...

Although Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) vowed this week to introduce comprehensive immigration reform next month, his Senate counterparts expected to take the lead on the issue aren’t heeding a similar timeline. “That’s new to me,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Gutierrez’s announcement, made Tuesday at an immigration rally on Capitol Hill. “I’ve been talking to Sen. Schumer, and we hope to get something done that’s comprehensive,” Graham added. “We just don’t know when yet.”Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security, has been meeting periodically with Graham to discuss ideas on immigration,...

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC (WIS) - Two Air Force F-16 jets based out of Shaw Air Force Base collided off the coast of South Carolina Thursday night, and one of them is missing. Air Force officials said the fighters were assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing collided in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean about 8:30pm on Thursday near Myrtle Beach. The aircraft were participating in night training maneuvers, officials said. The aircraft carried one person each. One F-16 was able to land safely at Charleston AFB, and the pilot is being examined by Air Force medical personnel. The location...

Market Street Saloon scammed out of $510 in latest, boldest counterfeit case It was dark, the alcohol was flowing and dozens of Alexander Hamiltons and Andrew Jacksons were making their way into a downtown bar's cash register Friday night. It wasn't until the next day that a manager at the Market Street Saloon realized that someone scammed the business out of $510 by passing bogus $10 and $20 bills. Charleston police said the incident is the most brazen of several counterfeit cases to hit the city recently. In the last two weeks, eight businesses from West Ashley, James Island and...

Mitch McConnell and his deputies in the Senate Republican leadership are responding very cautiously to Olympia Snowe’s decision to become the first GOP vote for a Democratic health care reform bill. That’s about all they can do. “My job as whip is not to twist her arm but to bring all the information that we can bring to bear on the issue and hope that people vote the way we would like to see them vote,” said McConnell’s No. 2, Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Kyl said a heavy-handed approach “doesn’t work.”

An outburst at an angry South Carolina town hall meeting has exemplified the growing fissure in the Republican Party across the nation. “We're not going to be the party of angry white guys," liberal Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told a Greenville, South Carolina, audience at Furman University where some supporters of Congressman Ron Paul were heckling him. Ron Paul responded on CNN's Situation Room October 14 that Graham's attack was unfair. “For him to ... say that everybody who is upset with the government and upset with his type of voting record are angry white people or angry men, that...

Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul took to the cable networks today to jab back at South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who over the weekend said he would not sit back and watch the Texan “hijack” the GOP with his brand of Republicanism. “My first reaction would be, ‘What does he have against the Constitution?’ And the supporters I have support me because I’m a traditional conservative and I support the Constitution,” Paul told CNN in an interview tonight. He cited Graham’s support of TARP funds and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and “all the big government things” as...

Those angry town hall meetings are back. Last night, at a forum at Furman University, South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was pilloried by protesters for his decision to back Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and for his support for climate change legislation. During the 75-minute event, one man told Graham he had “betrayed” conservatism and made a “pact with the devil” by working with Democrats, and asked when the senator planned to change parties. . . . . . Maybe what really ticked off the conservatives was when Graham argued that the problem should be addressed as soon as...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) - Efforts by U.S. Senate Democrats to persuade Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to endorse their climate legislation may take a bit longer. Democrats have spent months reaching out to McCain through Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. The outreach appeared likely to step up after McCain's friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the weekend became the first Republican this year to sign on to a bipartisan climate-change plan.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) had some frank words for constituents who attended a town hall meeting Monday in Greenville: "chill out." According to The State, the centrist Republican lawmaker used the slang phrase repeatedly in response to combative and often accusatory comments made by audience members, most of whom represented far-right viewpoints. Attendees shouted, jeered, and waved anti-government signs at the senator throughout the meeting, but Graham was unperturbed. After explaining that bipartisan compromise is a crucial part of the political process, Graham finished by saying, "If you don't like it, you can leave."

(CNN) – South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has always enjoyed a little back-and-forth with belligerent audiences. He was at it again on Monday night as he faced down an angry town hall crowd in Greenville packed with libertarians and Tea Party activists who accused at the Republican senator of ditching conservative principles by working with Democrats on issues like climate change and voting to send Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. But Graham stressed a mantra he's repeated many times since his friend John McCain lost the presidential election last November — that the GOP must reach out to different...

Sen. Lindsey Graham spent his summer testing out lines on global warming. As the Republican hit the town halls in South Carolina, a state with a major military presence and one of the country's highest unemployment rates, Graham would ask people if they thought climate change was a problem. Few did. But Graham quickly followed with another question, asking for a show of hands from those concerned about energy security. The response was strong, and Graham wasted little time making the connection. "You can't look at it in isolation," Graham said in an interview last week. "I'm trying to say,...

The surprise endorsement of climate-change legislation by a leading Senate Republican has jump-started the languishing proposal but also has raised the prospect that it will include two major items that environmentalists dislike: more nuclear power and more offshore oil drilling. In an op-ed published Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina joined with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the chamber's leading Democratic advocate of climate legislation, to promote a bipartisan plan to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. They proposed a compromise that reduces U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions - which are widely considered to contribute to climate change - through a market-based "cap and...

COLUMBIA, S.C. U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint launched a bid for a second term Monday with no GOP primary opponent, $2.8 million in hand and a growing national profile. But he'll likely need the cash since his profile has grown as he famously said Republicans can make the national health care overhaul debate a Waterloo for President Barack Obama.

A top Senate Republican on Sunday announced his support for sweeping climate change legislation, disputing the "conventional wisdom" that says Congress simply cannot tackle the issue this year. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., co-authored an op-ed with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in The New York Times calling for action on legislation. Kerry rolled out a Senate climate change bill alongside Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., late last month. A Graham aide said Sunday that the South Carolina Republican was not explicitly endorsing that bill, but stands ready to work with Kerry toward some version of legislation to combat global warming. Though even...

<p>Officials say an alligator bit off part of a golfer's arm as he leaned over to pick up his ball at a private South Carolina course.</p> <p>The man, who is in his 70s, was retrieving his ball from a pond when the 10-foot alligator bit him at Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort County. The gator pulled the golfer into the pond and ripped off his arm in the struggle. His golf partners were able to free him.</p>

The impending feud between South Carolina Republican Reps. Joe Wilson and Bob Inglis heated up slightly Tuesday as the “You Lie!” Congressman held a fundraiser in Greenville — the heart of Inglis’ conservative Upstate district. Wilson told a packed room at Tommy’s Country Ham House that he felt like he was among friends. The Greenville News reported that Wilson said the trip was an act of gratitude to the Upstate’s talk-radio community for inspiring his larger involvement in the health-care debate. The rare out-of-district fundraiser was undoubtedly a slight at Inglis, who was one of only seven House Republicans to...

A former employee of the Smosska company and a job applicant, are expressing their concerns when it comes to the company and its legitimacy. Smosska officials say the company makes medical identification cards. The company held a job fair in Florence in July, and charged applicants a $40.00 fee for an assessment test. Smosska officials said the fee covered things like background and drug testing. Smosska officials said they planned to eventually employ up to 3,000 people in the Florence area and were renovating a large facility. The company was working out of a temporary office on Hoffmeyer Road in...

... [W]e have come together to put forward proposals that address legitimate concerns among Democrats and Republicans and the other constituencies with stakes in this legislation. We’re looking for a new beginning, informed by the work of our colleagues and legislation that is already before Congress. First, we agree that climate change is real and threatens our economy and national security. That is why we are advocating aggressive reductions in our emissions of the carbon gases that cause climate change. We will minimize the impact on major emitters through a market-based system that will provide both flexibility and time for...

I hate to say “I told you so.” But, well, I told you so. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has signed on to the Democrats’ massive green redistribution scheme masquerading as a planet-saving, national security-enhancing “energy independence” scheme. Can John McCain and the rest of the Climate Change Republicans be far behind? Now, the announcement of Graham’s alliance with Big Government Democrats. In the NYTimes, natch. Kerry and Graham go on to argue that we must buy into their plan because the EPA regulatory power grab will be worse. It’s greenmail: Sign on or else the out-of-control bureaucrats (and the unaccountable...

(snip) "Every idea is on the table," said Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), the lead sponsor of Senate climate legislation. "We're going to work in a bona fide way with everybody to see how to bridge a gap here. We've got to get a 60-vote margin. That means you've got to legislate, which means you have to compromise." Several moderate Senate Republicans, including John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said they are in talks with Kerry and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on the nuclear language, as well as other key issues."A guy like Senator Kerry...

Can Congress drill its way to legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions? Perhaps, says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who believes there is public support for both reducing reliance on energy imports and curbing carbon dioxide emissions. "If you married these two ideas up, I think you could get 60 votes, but that means give and take," Graham said yesterday."My hope is that if you marry these two ideas up you would get the votes for a reasonable climate change proposal, that's blocked now, and you would be able to become energy independent, that's blocked now," Graham added. "Both ideas run...

Red Venture to bring 1,000 new jobs to South Carolina Source: Governor of South Carolina Posted on: 7th October 2009 Gov. Mark Sanford today joined with the Department of Commerce and Lancaster County community in welcoming Red Venture LLC as they expand operations and move their headquarters to South Carolina. The decision by Charlotte-based Red Venture LLC, an internet technology company named the 17th fastest growing private firm in the United States by Inc. magazine last year, will mean 1,000 new high-paying jobs and a $27 million investment for Lancaster County. “This announcement represents yet another dividend from our state’s...

South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has raised $2.7 million in an outpouring of conservative support that followed his shouting "You lie!" at President Obama during a joint session of Congress and facing fierce attacks from Democrats as a result, a source close to his campaign told POLITICO. Wilson's fundraising offers a glimpse at the energy burning in the conservative grass roots — and the appetite there for confrontation: He raised the money from more than 50,000 people, with an average contribution of $53.49, in the third quarter. He'll report $2.6 million on hand in the filing period.

It is being reported this morning that US Senator Lindsey Graham will hold a Town Hall meeing Monday Oct 12 at 6:15pm at Timmons Arena on Furman Univ, Greenville SC. No signs or materials will be allowed in Timmons.

Jim DeMint is one of my favorite Republicans. The senator's unwavering opposition to government spending — from "stimulus" and national healthcare to auditing the Federal Reserve — just warms my conservative heart. That is until he breaks it again, as he always does, by going back to supporting the biggest government program of them all. On the day before DeMint appeared on Fox News in support of the tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who gathered on 9/12 in Washington, D.C., he gave the following comments on the Senate floor: "Today marks the eighth anniversary of America's war on terror...

Ralph Nader will be in South Carolina this Tuesday, October 6, 2009. He will be speaking on health care reform and single payer. When: Tuesday October 6, 2009 11 a.m. Where: Presbyterian College Belk Auditorium 503 South Broad St. Clinton, South Carolina 29325 For more information contact: Matthew Zawiksy at 716.479.2351 E-mail: zawisky@gmail.com

Lightning-rod talker Glenn Beck is taking a hit from an unexpected source. The Fox News host isn't aligned with any political party, Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday, Beck is "aligned with cynicism." And, the South Carolina Republican added, America isn't a nation of cynics. Graham, who spoke at The First Draft of History conference sponsored by The Atlantic, also took at shot at "birthers." He said those who question President Obama's citizenship or claim he's a secret Muslim are "crazy" -- and he urged them to "knock this crap off." Graham's remarks came a day after the White House took...

A simmering feud over U.S. policy toward Latin America burst into the open Thursday when Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) tried to prevent a fact-finding trip to Honduras by a Republican senator who is blocking two important diplomatic appointments. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) denounced Kerry's move on the Senate floor and sought the intervention of the minority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). The Republican leader appealed to the Defense Department to provide an aircraft for DeMint's trip and the Pentagon agreed to do so, according to the South Carolina senator's office.

Sen. Lindsey Graham , the Republican senator from South Carolina who helped Sen. John McCain of Arizona campaign for president, has a suggestion for some of the more radical elements of his own party challenging President Barack Obama: "I'm here to tell you that those who think the president was not born in Hawaii are crazy," Graham said at a "First Draft of History'' conference sponsored by The Atlantic, The Aspen Institute and the Newseum in Washington.

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC (WIS) - A group of Shaw Air Force Base airmen deploying to Afghanistan will depart Monday morning. More than 200 of the 20th Fighter Wing's airmen from the 79th Fighter Squadron, the 79th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, the 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron and the 20th Component Maintenance Squadron make up the main body of deployers. The 79th FS F-16 Fighting Falcons will depart for Afghanistan early Tuesday morning.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's use of state planes for personal and political trips could open him and the state to federal tax penalties because the flights never were recorded as taxable fringe benefits. Tax experts who reviewed an Associated Press analysis of more than 100 flights since 2003 said numerous trips could have triggered Internal Revenue Service rules that require adding the value of flights to the governor's wages, making them subject to taxes. The analysis shows nine flights since 2008 alone could be worth $19,019 in taxable benefits."The state appears to take the position that...

A man stealing a coin collection in a Hilton Head Plantation home at noon Wednesday found himself running for his life after the homeowner shot at him and chased him out of the house. The unidentified man, who was armed with a large stick or club, broke into a house on Teal Lane while the residents were inside, according to a news release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. The intruder entered through the unlocked front door and walked down the hall into a bedroom, where he started stealing a coin collection, according to the release. The owner confronted the...

A man stealing a coin collection in a Hilton Head Plantation home at noon Wednesday found himself running for his life after the homeowner shot at him and chased him out of the house. The unidentified man, who was armed with a large stick or club, broke into a house on Teal Lane while the residents were inside, according to a news release from the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office. The intruder entered through the unlocked front door and walked down the hall into a bedroom, where he started stealing a coin collection, according to the release. The owner confronted the...

Washington State plans no new financial incentives for Boeing in its bid to win a second production line for the 787 Dreamliner. That's clear from a 32-page document released Monday morning by the office of Gov. Christine Gregoire. On Friday, Gregoire met with the new chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Jim Albaugh, and presented him with the document outlining the business case for building a second 787 line here. The presentation includes no new concessions specific to Boeing or the aerospace industry, but instead summarizes the state's existing advantages as a center of civil aerospace manufacturing. "The greatest benefit...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis is paying the price for independent thinking. Inglis, a Travelers Rest Republican, might have been the only Republican lawmaker in the country booed lustily by his own constituents at town hall meetings last month.Inglis was shouted down when he asked listeners why they're afraid of President Barack Obama - and then suggested they stop watching conservative TV commentator Glenn Beck."He's trading on fear," Inglis advised one group, setting off loud catcalls. Despite a broadly conservative voting record, Inglis has angered many GOP activists with his contrarian stands on a handful of high-profile issues. In...

A hospital employee dressed in a gorilla costume and passing out bananas to the sounds of “Hail to the Chief” may have been an effort to recognize employees for a job well done, but some Regional Medical Center trustees are calling the incident offensive and racist. Trustees Betty Henderson and Dr. Oscar Butler Jr. called for greater sensitivity and diversity training opportunities on the part of hospital staff and employees to ensure a similar incident does not reoccur. “I know in the beginning in six days God created the earth and on the seventh day he made man,” Henderson said....

GREENVILLE S.C. -- A candidate for South Carolina’s Adjutant General found a high-powered way to appeal to supporters over the weekend. Dean Allen held a drawing for an AK-47 at a fundraiser in Greenville on Saturday. The event, called a “Machine Gun Social,” was held at Allen Arms Indoor Range on Poinsett Highway. For $25, donors were given a barbeque lunch and twenty shots with a machine gun. A free drawing determined the winner of the semi-automatic AK-47, valued at $700.

BISHOPVILLE, SC (WIS) - Department of Corrections officers are using tear gas to quell a large fight that broke out among dozens of inmates at Lee Correctional Institute in Bishopville Saturday. Corrections spokesman Josh Gelinas said the fight started at around 4:30pm among about 60 inmates of the Chesterfield Dormitory that were out of their cells. Two officers approached the dorm to try to stop the fighting, Gelinas said, but realized there were too many inmates involved to safely intervene. The officers exited the dorm, blocked the doors and called for backup. The fighting continued for about 20 minutes, Gelinas...

AIKEN, S.C. (AP) The South Carolina congressman who gained national attention for shouting "you lie" at President Obama during a speech to Congress will attend a Republican rally in Aiken. The Aiken Standard reports the Saturday rally will be held at the Republican Party headquarters in Aiken. Some have called the event a fundraiser and a show of support for Wilson. Aiken County Councilman Scott Singer called the rally awkward. He said he didn't want the rally to appear to support of Wilson's outburst. Wilson's shout at the president came after Obama said that extending health care to all Americans...

Remember "Baghdad Bob," the Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf? Even with Iraqi forces in a full rout and American Marines just blocks away Baghdad Bob would completely deny the presence of U.S. troops in the Iraqi capitol. Watching MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," on September 24 was reminiscent of Baghdad's Bob's press conferences. Olbermann asked Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, also an MSNBC political analyst, how "the GOP" would convince the public that the health care system "is not really in crisis" and that it does not need to be a priority compared to Afghanistan. Turning right to page three of...

FLORENCE—Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Friday the Afghan government has failed to provide services for its citizens, allowing a Taliban resurgence and a need for more U.S. troops. Graham, who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said more forces to keep the Taliban from taking over part of the country. “I will support the recommedation to send more troops,“ Graham said this morning during a town hall meeting of about 150 people at Francis Marion University. “I will support President Obama if he decides to commit troops. I do not want to make this a partisan issue like they (Democrats)...

Rep. Henry Brown (R-S.C.) and his new primary challenger are wasting no time getting started. Kentucky Senate race outsider Rand Paul (R) has now raised more than $1 million, thanks to a more than $185,000 moneybomb yesterday, his campaign announced. Bloomberg holds a sizeable lead, 52-36, over new Democratic nominee William Thompson. New York Gov. David Paterson (D) fires an early salvo in a potential primary for his job, accusing state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of being behind the White House’s request that Paterson not run for a full term. Maryland state Del. Herman Taylor eyes a primary challenge to...

NEWBERRY, SC (WIS) - Authorities are searching a Newberry College dormitory using police dogs and a bomb robot after a device exploded inside the building Wednesday. A Newberry police spokesperson said the device exploded in the Brokaw Dormitory, which houses freshman students at the college. No injuries have been reported, and the dorm was evacuated. Authorities did not say what type of device exploded, and would not call it an actual "explosive device." So far there's no word on the size or nature of the explosion. The spokesperson said State Law Enforcement Division agents are currently searching the building with...

Greenville, South Carolina saw the arrival of a Marine who perished in Afghanistan, and Gaffney, S.C. was his ultimate resting place. Only the faint sound of lightly marching feet could be heard as hundreds stood silent on the Greenville-Spartanburg International tarmac Wednesday while fully adorned Marines carried Lance Cpl. Chris Fowlkes’ flag-draped coffin. The solemn arrival began an afternoon-long procession that ultimately wound through the streets of the 20-year-old Marine’s hometown of Gaffney, where businesses shut down and mourners lined the streets. The homecoming came six days after the former Gaffney High School football player died in a military hospital...

ORANGEBURG, S.C. -- The Bolen and Elmore homes, three blocks apart in opposite directions off Columbia Road in this small city, could not seem more alike. Both are simple brick ranch-style houses occupied by retired couples, the men former police officers, who spend hours a day in dark dens where cigarette smoke wafts beneath the whirl of ceiling fans. Inside the hush of these rooms, however, their differences become clear. Columbia Road is a long and narrow country highway that serves as the border between the congressional districts of Rep. Joe Wilson, a white Republican who heckled President Obama during...

FLORENCE, SC (WMBF) - U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is hosting a town hall meeting in Florence on Friday. The meeting will be at 9 a.m. Sept. 25 at the Smith University Center at Francis Marion University. Graham (R-SC) will take questions from the audience. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. and the public is invited to attend.