Free Republic

Today we filed our complaint in the Federal District Court of Minnesota challenging the Corps and EPA’s extreme rule redefining “waters of the United States” subject to federal control under the Clean Water Act, and other laws. The case is entitled Washington Cattlemen’s Association, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, et al,. ... We represent ranchers, farmers and private parties from 5 different states arguing the new rule violates the Clean Water Act itself, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, and exceeds federal power under the Constitution. The new rule covers virtually all waters in the U.S. and much...

See where the money went in your state and how many jobs were "created" In Sumter County, SC, We are reported to get over 5,000,000 dollars in stimulus. Report says 4 jobs were created.

Greene makes watchdog's 'crooked' listBy DANIEL STRAUSS | 7/29/10 12:09 PM EDT Alvin Greene has been South Carolina's Democratic Senate nominee for less than two months but already a Washington watchdog group is nailing him as one of the most "crooked" politicians in the nation. Greene, the political neophyte who came out of nowhere to win the Democratic nomination to face GOP Sen. Jim DeMint, made the good government group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s recently-issued list of the "most corrupt and unethical candidates vying for federal office in 2010." The “crooked candidates” list focuses on office-seekers “who...

MANNING -- International media, photographers, more than a dozen television cameras and about 15 reporters turned out Sunday to watch Alvin Greene take the stage for the first time in his political career. The last time so much press came to see a South Carolina politician was when Gov. Mark Sanford returned from Argentina and tearfully confessed a clandestine affair that resulted in his personal and political collapse. Reporters were dispatched from as far away as London for the unlikely U.S. senatorial candidate's first real campaign stump Sunday at Greene's old junior high school. They came to see if Greene...

Ballot position? Electronic prompts? Pondering the theories behind an unlikely victory.Does anything feel more proudly patriotic than voting? You stride into your local polling place, past fellow citizens smoothing “I Voted!” stickers to their chests. You snap the booth’s curtain shut and turn to the ballot, ready to execute what Samuel Adams called “the most solemn trust in human society,” only to realize: Crap. Who are these guys? Academics call it “low information voting”: the psychology of what goes through our heads when confronted with a ballot full of names or issues we know very little about. Long established...

Watchdog Group Files Complaints Over South Carolina PrimaryBy BRIAN KNOWLTON June 15, 2010, 5:43 pm The unemployed South Carolina man whose surprise victory in last week’s Democratic primary race for a Senate seat has drawn intense scrutiny now faces another obstacle. A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, on Tuesday filed formal complaints with federal and state election officials (pdf) asserting that he and three other candidates violated election law. The group questioned (pdf) whether Alvin Michael Greene, an unknown who with little apparent funding beyond his unemployment checks had managed to pay a $10,440 filing fee,...

S.C. Democrats To Deliberate Mystery Nominee's FateBy Peter Overby Wed., June 16, 2010 6:43pm (EDT) Updated: 3 hours ago Democrats in South Carolina are still wondering just what happened last week when they picked their nominee for U.S. Senate. The easy winner in the primary was Alvin Greene, a cipher of a candidate who had no visible campaign. The losing candidate is protesting the outcome, and the state Democratic Party will hold a hearing on the matter Thursday. Since the primary, Greene has done some TV interviews, but he's also hung up on a lot of reporters. He didn't respond...

Did Voting Machines Play a Role in Alvin Greene's Win?Jun 15 2010, 5:09 PM ET It's an explanation that's been proposed by some: that South Carolina's electronic touch-screen voting machines had something to do with Alvin Greene's victory in the state's Democratic Senate primary. The vast majority of South Carolina's votes are cast on ES&S iVotronic touch-screen machines; paper ballots are used for absentee ballots and in emergency cases (like when poll workers are locked out of a polling place early in the morning and can't let voters in), but every polling station uses touch-screen machines to record the vast...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A watchdog group wants South Carolina's top prosecutor [ GOP State Attorney General Henry McMaster ] to investigate whether someone gave money to the unemployed, unknown Democrat [ Alvin M Greene ] who won the [ Democrat ] U.S. Senate primary last week. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington also filed a complaint Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission accusing Alvin Greene of failing to file appropriate campaign paperwork. SC State Attorney General did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. [ snip ]. Alvin Greene

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) says US Senate candidate Alvin Greene's (D-SC) win in last week's primary race is highly suspicious. Clyburn says South Carolina used voting machines that all other states rejected. In fact, they were bought from Louisiana, he said. "Something went wrong with these machines," Clyburn said. "They were very unreliable," he added. "All you need is a magnet" to compromise the machines, Rep. Clyburn said. Who would have a motive? "The motive could very well be to embarass the Democratic party. This could be embarassing if we do not get it worked out. Or this could be...

Radio talk show host Mark Levin interviews US Senate candidate Alvin Greene (D-SC) about his campaign, his pornography scandal, if he is a GOP plant and what he hopes to achieve if elected Senator. The notable part of the interview occurs at the end, when Greene is unable to name his Republican opponent Jim DeMint. Greene gave a long pause and sounded like he was searching through talking points for DeMint's name.

A South Carolina state senator requested Monday all voting machines used in Tuesday's primary election be impounded and a full audit be performed. State Senator Phil Leventis petitioned the State Election Commission to impound voting machines used in the statewide election citing the outcome of the U.S. Senate race. Alvin Green, an unemployed veteran, won the Democratic nomination. In a letter to the chairman of the commission, Leventis wrote, "...many voting irregularities occurred in the Democratic primary for United States Senate. For instance, it has been reported in 25 precincts in Spartanburg county, one of the Democratic candidates for U.S....

(VIDEO AT LINK) Beaufort -- He grabbed well over 50 percent of the democratic votes statewide in his run for US Senate. Same story in Beaufort County. But now, many who voted for Alvin Greene either won't admit it or now say they're ashamed. Here’s another twist to the blame game of how this whole thing happened. "I voted for him because his name sounded like the singer and I'd never heard of Vic Rawl,” Gail Westerfield of Beaufort said. "I didn't have name recognition-- so I went with the person who had the most...famous name. It's so bad." Could...

OMG...57% of voters, I mean human, voted for that guy??? I lost all hope to save my country. Done. We are absolutely completely doomed. Not because of the elected officials but because of WHO is electing them. The end of a country - because of her people. 40 IQ...and I am in a good mood.

"I have a little more than suspicions," Rep. Clyburn (D-SC) said of his idea that US Senate candidate Alvin Greene (D-SC) is a plant. Rep. Clyburn went on to say the man who managed the campaign of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) also managed the campaign of his [Clyburn's] opponent and Democrat Alvin Greene. "We see that Joe Wilson, the Republican congressman -- who I asked the House to censure for disrupting the President's speech -- his campaign manager was managing my opponent's campaign and so they were running my opponent's campaign, Alvin Greene's campaign and Ben Frasier, down in the...

He lost to a total unknown, and now the former South Carolina lawmaker is calling foul. Vic Rawl, a former state Representative, filed a formal protest on Monday contesting the shocking primary "win" of Alvin Greene. "We have filed this protest not for my personal or political gain, but on behalf of the people of South Carolina," the Democratic hopeful said in a statement on his official Web site. "There is a cloud over South Carolina, that affects all of our people, Democrats and Republicans, white and African-American alike," he said. "At this point, the people of our state do...

The Beauty of Alvin GreeneHis fairy-tale mystery victory is refreshing, because it subversively suggests that everything we think we know about campaigning is wrong.  How the heck did Alvin Greene, an unemployed veteran who lives with his parents and who had no discernable campaign activity, not only win the South Carolina Democratic Senate primary, but win by a wide margin? So unexpected is this result that official Washington is shaking off its stunned shock and throwing a mild tantrum. No less than David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Obama, suggested Sunday that Greene’s victory was not legitimate. “It doesn’t appear...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Former state lawmaker Vic Rawl on Monday formally protested the results of the U.S. Senate primary he lost last week to an unknown, unemployed military veteran. South Carolina Democratic Party Executive Director Jay Parmley said Rawl filed his protest with the party just before the noon deadline.

South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn says he knew something was wrong in the Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat, which was won by an unemployed political unknown. The Democratic congressman said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that he saw odd tactics with his own primary challenger. He says he discovered a Republican congressman's campaign manager was running the campaign for Clyburn's opponent. He said: "I know a Democratic pattern, I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place." Clyburn says he does not see himself supporting Greene, and...

South Carolina Pol Questions Dem Senate Candidate's 'Mental Status' By Heidi Noonan June 13, 2010 South Carolina Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Alvin M Greene, holds his own personal copy of his campaign flyer he used to show people he campaigned in Manning, S.C. [Pic in URL]. A South Carolina lawmaker on Sunday suggested that new Democratic Senate nominee Alvin Greene may be intellectually incapable of participating in the general election race. State Rep. Todd Rutherford told Fox News that he went to Greene's house to discuss with him how Greene succeeded last week in becoming the candidate to challenge...