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DON'T TEST, DON'T KNOW
The DHEC board has once again missed the point. Sometimes it's hard to
tell if they're blowing smoke to cover something up, or if they are really
that stupid.
South Carolina is one of the few states that requires the name of
anyone testing HIV positive to be turned over to the authorities. In what
was really a referendum on anonymous testing, the board voted on Feb. 8
against allowing home testing for HIV.
With logic that would have been rejected for a Buchanan ad, DHEC board
member Richard Jabbour said he's concerned that home testing could allow
someone who is HIV positive to become the next "Typhoid Mary."
While DHEC worries that anonymous testing would drive those infected
with the disease underground, they have never understood that their rules
keep people from coming in to be tested.
DHEC Commissioner Bryant and a majority of the board are essentially
arguing that it is better for people not to know that they are HIV
positive if DHEC isn't able to be in on the information.
Meanwhile, people who want to find out if they have the virus without
DHEC's help continue to drive to Atlanta and Charlotte.
GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL
Rep. Jakie Knotts (R-Lexington) the Redneck Emeritus of the
legislature, has teamed up with two of his black colleagues to sponsor a
bill to change the way that bonds are granted to citizens charged with a
crime.
HR 3036 would allow personal recognizance bonds to be granted on a
once a year basis and only for a first offense. Since it's a sure bet that
most people stupid, unlucky or desperate enough to get busted twice in one
year probably aren't going to have the money to post a cash bond.
Accordingly, the major effect of this bill will be to increase the
burden on taxpayers for keeping people in jail while they are awaiting a
trial to determine their possible innocence.
COURTING THE DUMP
The amazing Barnwell dump that educates children, rolls back taxes,
swallows nuclear waste and seems to live forever will appear at the state
Supreme Court on March 20.
An environmental coalition led by the South Carolina Environmental
Legal Project is asking the court to find that the state legislature kept
the dump open illegally.
A provision was added to the state budget bill that kept the Chem
Nuclear dump in Barnwell open with the intention of using the revenue for
education. The state constitution prohibits "bobtailing" an unrelated
piece of legislation onto another bill. The law was designed to prevent
legislators from slipping things into law without debate or a recorded
vote (like nuclear dumps in the budget.)
If the Supremes (none of whom are up for reelection for another two
years) bust the legislature for bobtailing, none of them will have to go
to jail. They will, however, be forced to do something that could get them
run out of office. They will have to go on record and vote if they want
South Carolina to continue being the nation's nuclear dump.
NO SOUP SHERLOCK
With Bob Dole counting on Carroll Campbell to deliver southern votes,
the national media is starting to pay attention to the former governor and
pool hall owner from Greenville.
The March 18, edition of The New Republic is running an article
titled "Dole's shady ally, Campbell Soup" about Campbell's "anti-Semitic"
past. The article recounts how Campbell and his handler Lee Atwater may
have taken advantage of a poll they commissioned that asked voters if they
would be more likely to support a native born South Carolinian (Campbell)
or a foreign-born Jew who didn't believe in Jesus Christ as the savior
(Campbell's opponent was Jewish).
"It gets worse," the story continues, relating Campbell's 1979
appearance before the Liberty Lobby. The Lobby's journal publishes
articles claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax and that a Zionist
conspiracy runs the world. The article concludes by noting that Campbell
is perceived as representing the GOP mainstream, and "if this is what
passes for moderation and enlightenment these days, what on earth is
happening to the Republican Party?"
IT WORKED FOR DAVID
When Sen. Mike Fair 's Legislative Committee on Children and Families
announced its seminar on "Adolescent Sexuality: Restoring Health and
Virtue," observers wondered how such an unabashedly Christian
fundamentalist event could be organized through a state office.
The program included speakers from Family Honor Inc., Traditional
Values Coalition, Christian Life Commission, Americans for a Sound
AIDS/HIV Policy, and other "abstinence only" sorts.
The Sunday keynote was "Restoring Social Virtue and Purity to South
Carolina," by Mary Wood Beasley, who is credited with restoring the
governor's virtue.
She suggested that kids of today aren't like her husband, they will
wait until they are married to have sex. The message of the seminar was
that virtue can be restored by not teaching school kids anything about
contraception, banning birth control devices to those under 18 (House Bill
3468 Fair), and praying for a return to a time in the past when sex was
dirty and nice girls didn't do it.
We have news for Mary Wood. Nearly 12,000 teenage girls in this state
had babies last year. God knows how many more lost their virtue.
You can outlaw condoms, ban sexual education
 hell,
tie their legs together and brand A's on their foreheads
and
you still won't be able to legislate, mandate or pray your way to
adolescent abstinence.
Sex is a natural urge that children need to be taught to deal with
responsibly. We can encourage them to wait, but short of saltpeter in
school lunches, a lot of girls are still going to get knocked up. It's a
God-given affliction, Mary Wood; just ask your husband.
GOD MUST BE A REPUBLICAN
The Christian Coalition's God and Country rally on the eve of the
Republican primary was quite a show.
"If this won't choke you up nothing will," said a middle-aged white
participant who resembled the rest of the faithful.
The overflow crowd of about 800 people enjoyed a light show, balloons
and patriotic music while waiting for the main event.
The Coalition's wunderkid Ralph Reed whipped the crowd into a frenzy
before he introduced the chosen one, Pat Buchanan.
Obliterating the line between church and state, Reed exhorted, "The
banner we walk under doesn't bear a donkey or elephant, it bears the cross
of Jesus Christ our savior!"
Taking credit for winning the last election for Jesus, Reed told the
rapt crowd, "They called him fringe, they called him a lunatic, they
called him a Christian Coalition type. Today they call him Governor
Beasley!"
Buchannan pandered to the crowd. "We're going to terminate that
character," he said about the federal judge presiding over the Citadel
case. "Never let them take that flag down," was his position on racial
harmony. No more U.N. No more Department of Education. No more National
Endowment of the Arts. No more abortion-tolerant Supreme Court.
When South Carolina's Republican heavies hit the stage after
Buchannan, the crowd was spent. The applause for Dole, Beasley, Campbell,
Thurmond and Condon was polite, but you could tell this crowd wasn't
voting for these wimps.
"Dole doesn't appeal to the Christian Coalition," said a middle-aged
white guy from Irmo. "These are churchgoing people who recognize the right
to life and local control."
Dole's victory in the South Carolina Republican primary indicated that
Campbell's gang still has control of the votes. The good news is that as
long as the Christian Coalition controls the party apparatus, the
Republicans are their own worst enemy.
BREATHE, STROM, BREATHE!
The Close campaign figured out why television stations were cancelling
interviews with Strom Thurmond's Democratic opponent, Elliott Close.
The television news can't get the most senior senator to do a live
shot, and the stations don't want to air only segments from Close.
Whether the news teams are showing a bias for Thurmond or evidencing
concern for balanced reporting is unknown. Thurmond's handlers have
decided that the senator has nothing to gain and everything to lose by
doing interviews.
At the recent God and Country rally, Thurmond's silence was as notable
as his feeble presence. With Gov. Beasley propping him up, the senator was
able to smile and wave on cue.
EUTHANASIA OR MURDER?
The biggest showdown over the House budget bill was a fight to block
the privatization of the Medical University of South Carolina's hospital.
Normally, the legislature attaches provisos to the budget to get away
with something they don't want to debate or vote on. This time, they
attached a rider that will give them the opportunity to vote on the
disposal of the Medical University's hospital.
Hospital Corporation of America has reached an agreement with MUSC
President Jim Edwards to pay off the school's $100 million debt and lease
the facility.
Edwards says that dumping the hospital is the only way to save it.
Edwards flew to Columbia in MUSC's plane to lend his presence to the
budget debate. He was joined by HCA lobbyists Dwight Drake, Fred Allen and
Warren Tompkins.
"When you see that type of firepower assembled behind a former
governor, it's generally a done deal," said one legislator.
But Rep. Lynn Seithel (R-Charleston) led a successful fight to block
the disposal of the hospital without legislative approval with a vote of
53 to 49. Seithel says that there are too many unanswered questions and
wonders, "If things are so bad (at MUSC) why does a big corporation
dedicated to profit want to take it over?"
MUSC had a $31 million profit last year. The contract Edwards has
negotiated limits the role of the school's Board of Trustees to an
"advisory" capacity. HCA will also be allowed to sell off $10 million in
assets each year without any additional authority.
Edwards seems intent in closing the deal in spite of pissing off the
legislature and a coalition of more than 300 Lowcountry doctors who have
reservations about the plan. The state treasurer and comptroller general
are trying to persuade Edwards to get an opinion on the deal from Attorney
General Charlie Condon. Condon doesn't want to get involved and wants the
state Supreme Court to decide the issue. Observers think it unlikely the
Supreme Court will accept jurisdiction.
"We are going to get sued over this," said one state official. "It
makes sense to get your lawyer's opinion before you do something stupid."
NAME THAT SLEAZEBALL
This month's Sleazeball Award goes to a Greenville dentist who is
charged with guarding your health. This sleaze is of the opinion that if
the state can't know if you are HIV positive, you shouldn't know either.
For a free trial subscription to POINT, be the first caller to
identify this sleazeball.
Last month's Sleazeball, the man who has filed the most suits
against the federal government, was Attorney General Charlie Condon.
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