columbiacitypaper.com blog

Dan Savage at USC and Drinking in the Morning

2009-09-20T21:43:00.001-04:00

Dan Savage, author of the wildly popular “Savage Love” sex-advice column (syndicated in South Carolina exclusively in Columbia City Paper) visits the Russell House Ballroom Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 8 p.m.The Q&A session –essentially a live, audience-driven version of his advice column—will cover anything and everything related to sex, relationships, LGBT issues, sex education and politics. The event is FREE to USC students, faculty and staff.

Also, this weeks episode of Drinking in the Morning is all about Jesus andColumbia City Paper!

http://www.drinkinginthemorning.com

http://www.columbiacitypaper.com now has up to the minute movie times, show dates, and weather. http://www.colatheater.com has upcoming auditions and theater previews. Bookmark them!

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Congrats Ron Aiken!

2009-08-11T08:42:00.002-04:00

We presented Free Times with a fruit basket last Friday to congratulate them on their second original cover story since the "Cromartie Files" in 2000.

Keep up the good work Free Times and enjoy our fruit basket packed with a cheese ball with nuts, small potatoes and sour grapes!

Open season

2009-08-11T08:29:00.002-04:00

Five Points is still over looked when it comes to police presence at night. Here is this seasons warning e-mail being forwarded around:

Information out about 5 Points and recent gang related activity. Please Read!

I know we get emails like these all the time warning us about the area, and I am sending one out because my cousin was jumped by a gang of 20-30 young black men Saturday night around 2:00AM while walking to his car parked in between Harpers and the Bank of America.

He was not walking alone, but with 2 girls and another guy. One of the girls had her purse stolen and the 4 of them were able to run and get into their car. My cousin was in the back and was grabbed, knocked to the ground, had his wallet, car keys, and cell phone taken and kicked and beaten by the group. His friends immediately drove the car over to scare the group, and they all ran away. He was taken to the Emergency Room and was in ICU. He is going to be fine, thank God. After the gang was done, they ran back onto Harden Street to mix in. No police were there in time to do anything or make any arrests. The scary part to me is that they ran right back into a public area, obviously not worried about being caught.

While my aunt was in the waiting room of the ER, there was a girl in there with her boyfriend who had been attacked the same night in 5 Points in the same way. Her purse was taken but she was not harmed. Her boyfriend was severely beaten and had a broken jaw.

The nurses in the trauma unit told my aunt they have seen an increase in attacked people coming into the ER over the last few weeks with similar stories from the 5 Points area.

I tried to find something about the 5 Points area in the local media warning of these incidents but was unable to find anything about it though it is clearly happening and a huge danger to all of us who go into the area. I want to let everyone I can know about this and to please be careful when down there and to stay away from back alleys, roads, and dark areas. There is not much any of us could do if attacked by a gang of 20-30 while walking to our cars or being in the area.

Please pass this along so that people will know what is going on the 5 Points area and to be very careful while down there.

KKK RALLY HELD ON STATE HOUSE GROUNDS

2009-04-16T10:20:00.003-04:00

Satire by S.M. Baleen

Today (Tax Day), about 1,500 members of the Ku Klux Klan gathered on the South Carolina State House grounds under the aegis of protesting “taxation without representation.” Rally organizer and Columbia area real estate magnate Britton Clark could not be reached for comment on the irony that the rally was being held on the steps of the State Capitol, the very place where taxation WITH representation occurs every day in South Carolina.

U.S. Senator Jim Demint told the gathered fiery protestors, “This is where I get my strength.” Really? From people who apparently despise the fact that their tax dollars are spent to pay the salaries of firefighters, teachers and police officers. (Hey, Senator, I hear that the quasi-country of Somalia has some political position holes to fill.)

Today’s rally, however, is a marvelous indicator that the American political right wing has apparently taken a turn for total pacifism. Or is it possible that the protestors, many of whom have family and friends in the U.S. military, aren’t aware of the fact that the $1 trillion the U.S. government will spend on defense in the current fiscal year comes from taxes collected by the federal government.

Then again, maybe the “tea party” protesters just want the military to be composed of privately-maintained armies. This could be the case, as one protestor could be heard yelling, “COBRA Commander rules! Long live Destro!”

Ironically, at the end of today’s rally, all protestors were forced against their will to cross publicly-funded roads in order to get back to their cars. (No one seemed to complain all too much about that.) And Columbia Mayor Bob Coble issued a special edict that any protestor injured in an automobile accident on the way home would, out of deference for their political beliefs, not be offered police, ambulance or firefighter assistance, nor would they be allowed treatment by a doctor or healthcare worker who had formerly received any type of public education.

"ORPHAN WORKS": NEW BILL LEGALIZES THEFT

2008-09-28T14:21:00.003-04:00

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists (AAEC) is dismayed to learn that unscrupulous members of the U.S. Senate have taken advantage of Americans' focus on the nation's financial crisis in order to pass controversial legislation that threatens the livelihoods of everyone who relies on copyright for a living.

Deploying perfidious secrecy reminiscent of the circumstances of the passage of the USA-Patriot Act, the Senate passed S. 2913, also called the Shaw Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 ("Orphan Works Act") on Friday, while the national media was focused on the mortgage meltdown bailout proposal. A similar bill is being considered by the House of Representatives.

The owner of a store notices a man shoplifting her merchandise. She calls the police, who arrest the man. But they don't take him to jail. Instead, they let him keep the stuff he stole. All he has to do is pay the retail price. They let him go.

Crazy? You bet. But that's exactly what Congress wants to do to intellectual property. If a cartoonist or another artist catches someone stealing his or her work, the thief gets to keep it. All he has to do is pay retail.

Sponsors of the Orphan Works Act claim they want to make it easier for libraries and researchers to reproduce intellectual property whose creators or copyright holders are difficult to find. The practical effect of the Orphan Works Act, however, would be far more sinister. If signed into law, it would create an irresistible incentive for unscrupulous individuals and companies to violate copyrighted material, including the political cartoons created by our members.

"The bill enables users to exhibit orphan works if, after a thorough and documented good-faith search, they are unable to locate the copyright owners," reports the Deseret News of Salt Lake City. And there's the rub. A "good-faith search" is so broadly defined as to be meaningless.

Let's say, for example, that a book publisher wanted to print an editorial cartoon in a history textbook. Currently a typical reprint fee for such use is $250. Under current copyright law, a publisher who gets caught using such work without permission would be liable for three times the standard rate—in this case, $750. A judge could order the books impounded. If the cartoonist had to hire a lawyer, a judge could make the violator pay his or her attorney's fees. These provisions deter most would-be copyright violators.

Under the Orphan Works Act, the deterrent effect of punishment would all but vanish. If the cartoonist learned about the infringement and tracked down its perpetrator, all the publisher would have to do to avoid the triple penalty would be to claim that it engaged in an as-yet undefined "good-faith search." In the cited example, the aggrieved cartoonist would receive $250. He or she would have no way to remove the image from a book that he or she might find objectionable—say, one that advocated reprehensible political views. There would be no compensation for legal fees, or the time and effort involved in tracking down lawbreakers. And that's assuming the artist were ever to learn about the illegal usage.

In the unlikely case that an artist were lucky enough to learn that his or her work had effectively been stolen, he or she would only be entitled to "the amount on which a willing buyer and willing seller in the positions of the infringer and the owner of the infringed copyright would have agreed with respect to the infringing use of the work immediately before the infringement began." But this is no different than the storeowner who catches a shoplifter. A victim of theft is NOT a "willing seller."

Laws that encourage illegal behavior are bad laws. We hope the Senate and President Bush will join us, at least 60 other organizations representing writers and artists, and millions of Americans employed in the creative arts, in opposing the Orphan Works Act.

Ted Rall, President
Association of American Editorial Cartoonists

A Real Republican Maverick

2008-09-27T11:36:00.003-04:00

Governor Mark Sanford is more true to Republican roots than some in the Bush administration. It is no surprise Sanford had trouble on CCN defending the similarities of John McCain's economic plan to the Bush Administrations. Perhaps Sanford was more biting his tongue than blanking out. This is a great article by Sanford that appeared the the Washinton Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092503602.html

While Sanford gave one bad interview nothing compares to Palin's "air space" in the attached Youtube clip and she expects to be Vice President. Since that appearance she has been turning down interviews and it is becoming more apparent McCain may have made the wrong V.P. pick in trying to attract moderate and independent voters.

McCain is no longer a maverick and never accept a self given nickname. It makes reminds me of a "compassionate conservative" that was going to be a "uniter not a divider."

Americans at war with nature

2008-08-05T18:43:00.001-04:00

Since World War II and perhaps even earlier, Americans have been seemingly brainwashed into believing we have to war with everything. There has been the unsuccessful war on poverty, the unsuccessful war on drugs, the unsuccessful war on cancer and recently along the Mississippi we have seen another battle lost in our war against nature, or in this specific case: a river.

The Mississippi has proven once again to be an adversary that the United States and its citizens cannot beat (similar in a way to fighting a conventional war against an idea like terrorism or fighting a war against plants like the opium poppy, marijuana or coca). An early victory by the Mighty Mississip’ occurred in 1927. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 displaced 700,000 people. Another battle lost by America was the Great Flood of 1993. Yet, we have rebuilt houses again and again and have built higher and higher levees in the hope that it can stop a force of nature, a flooding river.

You have to admire the heart of the people who keep rebuilding along the Mississippi, but once you wade in deeper you have to get fairly pissed off at those people. You hear people say, “I couldn’t afford flood insurance and now I lost everything.” No matter how heartless it sounds the question has to be asked: “You knew the river flooded, why should I feel sorry for you for taking a calculated risk and losing?” No one feels sorry for people who lose their shirt on other risky gambles like letting it all ride on black at the roulette table, why should I feel any worse because some person chose to live next to a river that floods and either didn’t get flood insurance or wasn’t able to afford flood insurance? To top it off, FEMA and other federal organizations help rebuild these communities and levees and that money comes from you and me. Our money is taken to rebuild communities that—almost guaranteed—will be flooded again. It’s a river; rivers flood and levees seem to break quite often. So basically our federal government is reinforcing generations of bad decisions and allowing them to continue.

The question remains: isn’t there a better solution to this problem than levees and flood insurance? Every time a town is destroyed by a flood, the actuaries crunch out the numbers and come up with new, higher premiums; levees get built higher, bigger, and stronger which seemingly causes more catastrophic flooding when they fail. My question is why fight the flooding, why not work with it? Doesn’t flooding ultimately deposit new nutrient rich silt on farmlands? If flooding were allowed to occur along large stretches of the river, wouldn’t that dissipate the effects of the flood, and lead to lower flood waters in general? (I admit I am no flooding expert and this last supposition could be wrong).

Well how could we do this? How could we build homes and communities that to borrow a hippie phrase, “live in harmony with nature?” Hmm, let’s think about this. What is the major issue with flooding? The water rises but the buildings don’t, thus they flood. There is the answer: floating buildings! A building that could float would cost more up front, but in theory flood insurance (yes you would still need it as a precaution) premiums would be significantly reduced so you make the cost difference up on the back end.

Could it be done? Yes it can be done. Asian communities have been build on stilted or floating platforms in areas that are dry are only part of the year. And people like the Dutch, as close to masters as there can be in fighting water (yes, even they haven’t won the war) have begun to look at the feasibility of large scale floating villages. Some existing floating housing in the Netherlands even “move[s] up and down with the water level of the river.” And there are even patents on file here in America for the concept. Seriously, how hard could it be to adapt/modify these concepts to work in the Mississippi floodplain? Granted it might not be feasible for large factories (then again there is a possibility it could be) but small towns and rural communities that seem to take the brunt of these floods could be made impervious to flooding, saving my money and saving me from hours of TV footage of people crying because they lost everything they owned.

What happened to American ingenuity and creativity…did we decide to lock it away while we fight hundreds of “wars on xyz” which we can never win? Better solutions exist than a higher levee or another botched FEMA recovery effort. Why don’t we try them?

CARTOONISTS DECLARE JIHAD ON COMEDY CENTRAL SCABS

2008-01-19T17:50:00.000-05:00

CARTOONISTS DECLARE JIHAD ON COMEDY CENTRAL SCABS

Syndicated political cartoonists Ted Rall and Matt Bors will issue
cartoons ridiculing two figures generally revered by liberals for their
political humor: Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" and Stephen Colbert of
"The Colbert Report."

Despite not making a deal with the striking Writers Guild of America,
Stewart and Colbert have returned to their shows--without writers--in a
move that has generated little to no criticism from the liberal press.

Rall and Bors, who write and draw all their own material and are not
members of the Writers Guild, have decided to team up and deliver a
one-two punch, with each of them taking on one of the Comedy Central
hosts in cartoons issued by their respective syndicates on the night of
Thursday, January 17. The cartoons will also be available at their
websites www.tedrall.com and www.mattbors.com

"One naturally hesitates before unleashing the fearsome power of Rall
and Bors," said Bors and Rall, "but the stakes are too high, the issues
too important, the hypocrisy too hypocritical for us to just put down
our pens and tune in to their union-busting, albeit highly amusing,
programs."

Rall's cartoon imagines rough and tumble union members from 1938
traveling through a wormhole to encounter Jon Stewart, whom they
identify as a "scab." The comic ends with Stewart being carried away on
a stretcher after being violently beaten. "Stewart's wry, vaguely
left-of-center wit fails to register with the visitors from a more
straightforward time," Rall writes in the comic.

"Progressives shouldn't let these scabs off the hook, no matter how
hilarious they are," said Rall. "The War on Snarkism starts now!"

Bors' comic deals with Colbert in a parody of his popular segment "The
Wørd." This time the word is "Scab" with Colbert remarking, "Writers
may be able to hang out all day on their air conditioned sidewalks, but
I have a mouth to feed, folks!" while the screen informs us of his
ego's lunch break demands. It's something you could almost imagine
Colbert saying, with Bors turning the faux-right wing persona back on
the host.

"They have no integrity, no morals, and no guts," Bors huffed. "They're
funny, sure, but not ha-ha funny. Not after this."

Ted Rall's cartoons are distributed by Universal Press Syndicate, while
Matt Bors' work is distributed through United Feature Syndicate. They
each draw three cartoons a week.

Neither Rall nor Bors will be available for appearances on either of
the shows while the strike remains in effect. "We'd rather fight in
Bush's wars than cross a picket line," they said in unison.

Brave Bhutto assassinated

2007-12-27T12:20:00.001-05:00

Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated at a rally in at a park in Islamabad.
Bhutto was a brave and bold proponent for democracy in Pakistan.

For more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/world/asia/28pakistan.html?hp

A crazy republican or a republican that isn't crazy?

2007-10-18T14:20:00.000-04:00

Wilmington book review

2007-09-18T14:24:00.000-04:00

Here's a great book review of Don McCallister's Kings Highway

By Ben Steelman
Staff Writer
ben.steelman@starnewsonline.com

"You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days," says Burt Lancaster's aged hustler in the movie Atlantic City. And you should have seen Myrtle Beach in those days, too - before the condos, before the monster outlet malls, before the eight-lane highways and the seawalls, before lap dancing replaced shag dancing.

Columbia, S.C., author James D. McCallister remembers it well, and his first novel is an exercise in a sort of rueful nostalgia.

King's Highway takes us back to the spring of 1978, through the recollections of Ray DeKalb, a slacker before his time at "Southeastern University" in Columbia.

Ray isn't sure who he is, or what he wants to be, but he's emphatically clear on what he doesn't want to be: a small-town up-country lawyer with political impulses, the future his daddy has mapped out for him, and the one that his brother, Jenkins, has already embraced.

Ray's a kind of passive-aggressive rebel, surly but not daring enough to do much to jeopardize the trust fund checks that keep him in beer, vinyl LPs, paperbacks and low-grade marijuana.

The South Carolina public school system and a few semesters at Southeastern have given him a patchy, unsystematic education: We know Ray's read the usual undergrad classics of the period: Catch-22, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and a little Harlan Ellison. (He quotes the title, at least, of Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.")

Ray's main passion, though, is music, especially Warren Zevon's Excitable Boy, which he's just discovered. (The chapter titles in King's Highway are all Zevon singles from that album.)

Eventually, angst and a half-hearted, busted romance send Ray packing his bags and heading for his old Nirvana of Myrtle Beach, to rent a motel room, find a job and figure out what happens next.

At least he checks off a couple of goals. In a day or two, he's swinging a broom at The Pavilion, a real-life Myrtle Beach amusement park. In a few days more - given his smart mouth and a low-grade talent for voice impersonations - he's scored a promotion to top clown in the dunking booth.

Ray also gets lucky, first with his fairly-well-preserved landlady, then with Jamie, with "her little flip-up bangs and her golden-brown skin," a Jersey runaway who's just split with her smalltime-dealer boyfriend. Fortunately, she made off with some of the merchandise before she left. Life is good. For a while.

Like most 20-year-old philosophers, Ray isn't quite as brilliant, or as original, as he thinks he is.

There's a certain satisfaction in feeling superior to the Pavilion customers who think chili dogs are an appropriate diet for their toddlers. And, of course, Ray sees right through the aging beach bums and the hairy hangers-on who keep talking about the epic sci-fi novel they're going to finish one of these days. What he can't see is that he's no different than they are, and heading in the same direction.

Nor does he realize that a mutual affection for energetic sex and controlled substances is a shaky foundation for a deep and lasting relationship.

Naturally, this being Myrtle Beach, and this being the '70s, tougher drugs than dope soon enter the picture, and meaner characters as well.

There's not much surprise about where King's Highway is heading, and McCallister leaves a few of his characters only half-sketched. Perhaps, too, there needs to be another ironclad rule: Just as white people probably shouldn't try to reproduce African-American dialect, maybe Southerners should avoid trying to reproduce fluent New Jersey-ese.

The author hits the bull's-eye, though, with his main character: Myrtle Beach itself, the Cloud Cuckoo-Land of misspent youth - what it felt like when we thought the fun would never end, and what it felt like when it finally did.

Ben Steelman: 343-2208

ben.steelman@starnewsonline.com

Pastor Billy Ball

2007-09-18T13:49:00.001-04:00

Next Saturday's Pride event may not be all fun and games or slaps and tickles. Supreme nutcase, Pastor Billy Ball, is scheduled to protest the S.C. Pride event and this guy has been to more gay parades than a pair of rainbow-colored bicycle shorts. The tragically named wacko even has a special collared shirt tailor made for the event, perfect for a round of golf and a quick dinner at Saluda's afterwards.

Maybe Pastor Ball is only comfortable around gays. And statistically speaking, the size of his family may very well produce a homosexual in the next generation or so.

Here's a picture of Pastor Billy Ball's grandkids.

Some of them have well coifed hair and fashionable little T-shirts while they strike poses (not to mention being completely disinterested in their sister). What if one of them eventually came out as a gay adult? Would Pastor Ball damn one of these cute little guys to Hell?

Most people want to punch Billy Ball in the face but my guess is all that will happen on Saturday is a wink and a pat on the ass. Ryan Wilson of S.C. Pride announced a press conference this afternoon regarding his attendance and chances are, they’re coming for you Pastor Ball, so pucker up!

Michelle Malkin's poor logic

2007-08-02T13:10:00.000-04:00

Joe Biden and Bill Richardson are the voice of the Democratic Party?

-- Corey Hutchins

In her recent column “The Democrats’ gun owner -bashing YouTube moment,” disseminated in corporate alt weekly panderers to the evangelical right-wing conservative advertising bloc, she makes a pretty laughable assumption about “The Democrats’” view on the Second Amendment in her labeling of Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson both as “leading presidential candidates.”

In fact her whole argument stemmed from the answers of Biden and Richardson as if they were the gospel voice of the Democratic Party.

Really?

Because if Joe Biden is not only a “leading presidential candidate” but also speaks for the entire Democratic Party then the next time I see Sen. Brownback verbally masturbating to everything between Genesis and Revelations or Ron Paul saying how we should end capital punishment, I’m going to go ahead and take that as The Right’s Holy View…by proxy of course, which is exactly what Malkin did.

She also uses the “Liberal” audience’s silence on Biden’s “snide” remarks about gun owners and the mentally ill to cement her argument that Democrats don’t believe in the Second Amendment and also have no compassion for the disabled. But Malkin probably forgot how many top key Republicans in the CPAC audience laughed and applauded when Ann Coulter called John Edwards a “faggot” at the convention.

To her credit-- though we don’t need Michelle Malkin to tell us this-- the Democrats typically do have a pussy-foot stance on the Second Amendment, which is a shame. But it probably does work for them and, really, trying to take that issue away from the Right would be like Gov. Mark Sanford saying the Right should take the environmental issue away from the Left. It’s just not gonna happen.

The Ron Paul problem

2007-07-17T15:35:00.000-04:00

"Lower-tier candidates" get the media backhand

-- Corey Hutchins

Just around the corner from City Paper’s office was a stenciled “Ron Paul for president” sign spray-painted red white and blue on a slab of particleboard similar to the "Deer hunting" signs of Upstate New York or the "Happy birthday Wayne, from T-bones" in other parts of the country. In Five Points, one of Columbia’s shopping, restaurant and bar areas, the Ron Paul sign was tacked to a telephone pole and directly below it was a similarly constructed job that read “Ultimate Fighters Wanted” with a listed local telephone number.

Also, on a nearby freeway there exists low-budget Ron Paul banner that hangs off a pedestrian bridge as if it were advertising a college fraternity toga party for this Saturday night.

So needless to say hearing that Paul currently has more cash on hand for his campaign than John McCain was a only a little puzzling. Personally I feel bad I haven't gotten a chance to get to know about Ron Paul-- I somehow managed to give up the time not spent between my two jobs, checking Facebook and scrolling through blogs to Columbia’s service industry.

But the Ron Paul campaign hasn’t really pulled me in yet— even with its hipster stamp of approval— and, to a more specific point, his moments in the debate were never projected ad osmosis from the voice boxes of Chris Mathews or Tucker Carlson and he somehow managed to stay out of the pages of the New Yorker, Esquire and Vanity Fair while only tickling my funny bone in anything from Mother Jones, The New Republic or Slate.com

And while Hillary Clinton and John Edwards recently got caught saying they believe the other candidates aren’t "serious" and the Democratic pool should be narrowed down, I wonder if this “blunder” wasn’t actually calculated by their individual campaigns to only appear like one.

As for whom Clinton/Edwards are talking about, i.e. Dennis Kucinich et al, I'm not even sure that's the absolute correct spelling of Kucinich's name. I once overheard The Nation’s Washington Correspondent, John Nichols, say that Kucinich’s problem was "about six inches" and I remember reading something somewhere once about "a 5' 7" divorced Jew." I know he shook my hand at the Hunter Gatherer in Columbia a few years ago and afterwards I said, "Who was that?" My roommate looked at me like I was Charles Manson.

And while everyone always says “the media picks the president” we do hear an awful lot about John Edwards (most notably in Men's Vogue in the waiting room of the gay barber), we hear about Hillary Clinton from everyone with a mouth and Barack Obama from every ambitious young black or-- ahem-- "just very progressive" young person in the South (maybe that's too much of an indictment), and , of course, Obama Girl (what a chick) but for the others in the running you really have to go and dig stuff about for yourself. You know… take the time to Get To Know The Candidate.

I too want to get to know Paul and Kucinich, maybe even Mike Gravel, just to understand their ideas and see if I think they’re “electable”— make sure no one can really hammer me for it— but I don't know if I'll be wasting time getting hooked on another Nader wagon like I supported in 2000. And this is coming from a guy who’s shared a few afternoons with John Taylor Bowles.

One thing I don't want to do though is spend my energy bashing the people who support the "lower-tier candidates," (as they’re being labeled by both the other candidates and the media in wink-and-handshake fashion) because democracy, even one as muddled as ours, is all about choices and restricting those choices would go against the same ideological principles that pragmatic, reasonable, progressive people believe in.

Besides, someone needs to be getting millionaire-rich off of "Don't blame me, I didn't vote for him/her" stickers if only to one day show us how wrong we were.

Hillary video

2007-07-11T14:16:00.000-04:00

Hillary Clinton works to soften her image with some humorous campaign videos.

Michael Moore

2007-07-11T14:06:00.000-04:00

Mike demands an apology from CNN for Dr. Sanjay Gupta's biased reporting on 'SiCKO' and for helping the Bush administration lie us into a pointless war.

The World Speaks

2007-06-29T13:39:00.000-04:00

Ever hear some redneck say we should remove the troops so we can nuke them all?

Video link suggested by City Paper columnist Ismail Lagardien

Landmark Resources attempts to shut down block of Five Points nightlife

2007-06-25T21:20:00.000-04:00

Here's the letter from Landmark Resources to the businesses in Plaza Center. Check out the story at www.columbiacitypaper.com

PARIS’S BIBLE

2007-06-25T12:22:00.000-04:00

From our political satire buddy David Martin. www.davespoliticalsatire.blogspot.com

PARIS’S BIBLE

by David Martin

Paris Hilton is back in jail and has apparently found God. She was recently spotted carrying a copy of the Bible and now says that her prison experience has changed her and made her “much more spiritual.”

However, it appears that Ms. Hilton’s Bible is not the King James Version or the New International Version. Rather, it seems that she is reading from her own personal version of the scriptures as evidenced by the following passages:

Oprah 3:15

“Be not constrained by the bars of prison but go forth and announce your state to the world. Whomever you choose to call, do so with grace, modesty and a guaranteed 15% audience share.”

Barbara 5:13

“Let not thy View be impaired by the darkness of your cell. For there is another cell called a phone which shall be thy lifeline to the throngs who long for news of your stay. Call when the spirit moves you and fear not that ye shall wake me for the good news is on a 24-hour cycle.”

Phil 4:23

“And the child did lamp unto the feet of the healer and cried out: ‘Why have you forsaken me, Dr. Phil?’ But lo, I have not forsaken you my child but instead I have reserved a fortnight’s worth of episodes to bring you back into the fold.”

2 FOX 6:12

“Know ye that wherever you go, God is with you as is FOX and all of her many channels. Praise the cable universe and the certain wealth that shall be rained down upon you at our most generous rates.”

Numbers 2:23

“Yea though ye serve your full sentence, know that the numbers will continue to rise. Based on the findings of the ones called Neilsen and Gallup and Pew, surely you will be seen by more of the people than you could previously have imagined. Do the time and you will earn the abundance of the Lord.”

Revelations 8:12

“And the people looked heavenward and cried as one: ‘Give us more news of the one they call Paris for we must know whereof she speaks!’ And the one called Paris looked down upon the masses and smiled for she knew that her penance would profit her for all time.”

2 ET 4:26
“The picture taker will live with the gossip monger, the broadsheet will lie down with the tabloid, the news and the entertainment and the trivia together; and an overgrown child shall lead them.”

S.C. commits another murder.

2007-06-24T15:49:00.000-04:00

Columbia, S.C. -Calvin Shuler was executed by lethal injection on Friday at Broad River Correctional Institution. Shuler was convicted of a murder that occurred during a botched robbery of an armored vehicle that killed James B. Brooks on Dec. 3, 1997.

Ever since City Paper slapped Governor Sanford’s home and vacation numbers on the cover of December 1st, 2005 issue South Carolina has done a good job at keeping it quiet when they are about to kill another criminal that didn’t commit a premeditated act.

Bottom line is South Carolina continues government-sanctioned murder for those that aren’t the worst of the worst and Gov. Sanford does nothing to stop it.

Hopefully these powerful state officials will get a T-Bone steak and have time to reflect on their judgment day.

- Paul Blake

S.C. Department of Revenue collecting from drug dealers

2007-06-24T12:31:00.000-04:00

The most mind boggling thing in this past cover story on crack had to be South Carolina's tax stamps for cocaine, heroin and mary jane.
Here's one of the stamps and the form needed for paying taxes on your illegal substances.

Read the full article here if you haven't read this yet.
-P.B.

Numbers Don’t Lie

2007-06-20T14:50:00.000-04:00

By Wendy Brinker

Many boast that America is the best country in the world. Indeed there are a few superlative qualities unique to America that go unchallenged. One area where we absolutely reign supreme is in our insatiable consumer practices. Americans only constitute four percent of the world population, but manage to annually gobble up one fourth of the world’s resources. That’s pretty impressive, considering there’s no ecosystem in existence that can mathematically sustain that type of predation for very long. We are superbly practiced in the art of compartmentalization, so the impact of our voracious appetites on the planet never really enters the equation.

Because we are so superior in theory and practice to the average world citizen, it’s difficult for us to extend equal human value past the Canadian border and ever since that “Freedom Fries” thing it’s even more difficult. So what if we’re considered terrorists by the international community? The world is our oyster and we’ve got all the Texas hot sauce you can handle. We're some gun toting, democracy loving, bible pounding marauders and if you’re not with us, you’re an evildoer so who needs you anyhow?

But this is no recent development in American attitudes. The notion of our special brand of U.S. grade-A white dominion stepped onto the shores with our ancestors and has remained a basic staple in our philosophical diet ever since. They brought with them a Western European notion created at the dawn of the sciences of archaeology and anthropology that asserts Caucasians possess a brain capacity superior to all others. Our indoctrination into the world using this model that puts us at the top of the human food chain has forever tainted our country's history, our self-perception and our relationship to the world. It is the subconscious brick on the gas pedal for white America when we characterize a people or country as barbaric or primitive or to whom we assign and extend “civility.”

This is how we lovingly forgive ourselves and even romanticize the genocide of the native people who lived on this continent thousands of years before we arrived. They were simple, hostile savages and besides, it was destiny – divine providence. God wanted us to live here. This is also the very quality that allowed us to kidnap and hold Africans in captivity for centuries for the express purpose of providing free labor. We just couldn’t find it in ourselves to assign any intellectual prowess or spiritual worth upon those who are so obviously inferior. And this is precisely how we live with the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Why start extending any benefit of humanity to people who are so obviously different from us now?

The news media refuses to show us the reality of carnage in Iraq, so unless you’re some kind of tree-hugging, bourgeois liberal, you probably don’t seek out this sort of morbid imagery. But our modern theatres and sporting arenas, the places you learn community/family-sanctioned hatred for people wearing another color or sporting another logo, provide a perfect measure. The toll of American deaths has recently exceeded 3,500. This grim assembly would fill up the four orchestra floor sections and the first and second balcony at the Township Auditorium with 300 waiting on Taylor Street to get in. The number of troops bloodied and wounded in Iraq (25,830 as of June 6, 2007) would constitute a capacity crowd of 18,000 at the Colonial Center and the overflow would nearly fill the Carolina Coliseum with its capacity to accommodate 12,000.

A Johns Hopkins University study released last October put the number of violent Iraqi civilian deaths since the invasion in 2003 at 600,000. The Bush administration puts the toll at 30,000. That’s quite a discrepancy. Since the White House refuses to account for innocent Iraqi lives lost, it is nearly impossible to know for sure. Let’s consider a figure of 200,000. This would fill Williams Brice Stadium (capacity of 80,000) two and a half times over. Many of the excess deaths are a result of aerial bombardments, with women and children being frequent victims. In fact, you would have to reserve in excess of 30,000 seats if you wanted to make a special kid’s section for all the Iraqi children who’ve died for democracy.

Our elected officials lied to us about their motivations for invading Iraq. Our innocent American children are forced to march on through hostile bloody sands bearing the gift of our superior way of life. So what if we have to kill them to teach them a better way to live? They’ll thank us for it in the end.

Besides, good Americans probably shouldn’t think about it too much.

Wendy Brinker is an artist and filmmaker in Columbia, S.C.

Ravenel Indictment

2007-06-19T20:34:00.001-04:00

Shortly after losing the state Republican nomination for a U.S. senate run to Jim DeMint in 2004, real estate developer-turned-S.C. Treasurer, Thomas Ravenel, explained that his gracious endorsement of DeMint was an example of how he "rolled." "That's just how Thomas Ravenel rolls," he said.

read more at www.columbiacitypaper.com

City Paper web site update

2007-06-14T15:18:00.000-04:00

One Stop Shop

http://www.columbiacitypaper.com now has all the information you need:
up to the date live music listings , movie listings, weather, on-line sudoku games, Restaurant listings and you can even find the lowest place to buy gas.

Don't worry there's still plenty of web extras of the Handwriting Doctor, Radio Free, Ted Rall, Statehouse Report, Savage Love, Red Meat, Bum of The Week, Letters to the Reader, David Axe's War is Boring, and unique sports coverage you won't see anywhere else.

-PB

The State newspaper picks up Christian Exodus story...two weeks later

2007-06-06T20:07:00.000-04:00

Two weeks after City Paper reported the founder of the religions, conservative, secessionist group, Christian Exodus, planned to lead an emigration to the South Carolina Upstate in order to take over state politics, the state’s largest daily newspaper ran an Associated Press report about the “breaking news.”

We’re sure it just took two weeks for one of the “boys in the newsroom” to go outside to buy a Coke and a Starburst and stumble across Columbia’s only locally-owned alternative weekly, but hey, better late than never.

-Corey Hutchins

Murder, robbery & burglary on the rise

2007-06-04T10:23:00.000-04:00

It will be interesting to see if these stats released today end up making crime a major campaign issue. - P.B.

Violent Crime

* Murder: Is up 0.3 percent overall. The number of offenses increased the most—6.7 percent—in cities with a million or more residents and decreased the most—11.9 percent—in non-metropolitan counties.
* Forcible rape: Decreased nearly 2 percent overall. Only two population categories experienced increases, both with populations less than 100,000.
* Robbery: Rose 6 percent, the highest increase in any violent or property crime category. Each population group except non-metropolitan counties saw an increase.
* Aggravated assault: Experienced a slight overall drop of 0.7 percent. The largest cities experienced the greatest declines.
* Regional breakdown: Three of four geographic regions (except the Northeast) showed violent crime increases. The largest increase was in the West, with 2.8 percent.

Property Crime

* Burglary: Increased slightly, 0.2 percent. The greatest increase—3.3 percent—came in cities with 500,000 to 999,999 residents.
* Larceny-theft (down 3.5 percent overall) and motor vehicle theft (down 4.7 percent) experienced decreases in every population category.
* Arson: Is up 1.8 percent in all but one population group. Arsons are tracked separately from other property crime offenses.

A successful concert series

2007-06-02T11:50:00.000-04:00

The summer concert series is here.
It starts at 7pm tonight at Finlay Park.
It is amazing how successful an event can be when it isn't controlled by corporate interests.

It is totally free and kicks off tonight with a blues band.
Bring chairs and have a picnic but no glass bottles or alcohol. (we say flask it!)
Have fun, as there is always something fun to do in Columbia!

You can also check out our movie times at the official City Paper site.

-P.B.

Why the Fair Tax army grows

2007-05-30T15:55:00.000-04:00

There is a “catch,” however, and that is why so many people were inspired to travel to Columbia from all over the country for a Tuesday evening FairTax rally. The “catch” is that enactment of the FairTax eliminates Congress’s ability to grant favors in the income tax system. Read the guest column written by the National Communication Director of FairTax.org, Ken Hoagland.

Military laughs while blowing up Mosque

2007-05-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

This video may explain the new video game themed recruitment ads.

Columbia suspect makes America’s Most Wanted

2007-05-29T09:00:00.000-04:00

Authorities are still looking for two suspects related to the heist of 10 million from an armored truck.

Read more at America's Most Wanted

A reflection on Bill Clinton’s visit to Columbia

2007-05-24T11:07:00.000-04:00

By Judit Trunkos

Columbia is definitely on the political map these days. Aside from the recent presidential debates, former President Bill Clinton made an appearance at the 29th Annual Freedom Fund Celebration hosted and organized by the NAACP last Friday.

Clinton used his trademark sense of humor to ease into serious issues such as health care and the global and domestic economies, but the common denominator in the many issues Clinton addressed was the global economic trend of interdependence.

In the latter part of his speech, Clinton explained that the worlds “interconnectedness” has so far been the major distinctive feature of the 21st Century. He didn’t place the U.S. in the position of the world’s policeman, but instead emphasized cooperation and global community using the example of President Bush’s supportive reaction to the victims of the 2004 tsunami that decimated the coasts of the Indian Ocean. Clinton pointed out that by providing assistance to Asian countries, the U.S. not only helped many people in great need but also improved America’s image among the global community. In other words—unlike many candidates in the 2008 presidential race—Clinton promoted soft power over military power with respect to the global community.

Interdependence, as he explained, is both bad and good and referred particularly to the sharp division between the northern and southern hemispheres with respect to distribution of wealth. In order for things to change, he says, people need to work together to initiate change, partly by choosing the right leader and partly by acting as a community... a global community.

At the conclusion of his talk, Clinton emphasized the significance of improving health care, education, low wages and high unemployment inside the U.S. before focusing on other nations’ problems. He also urged his audience to step up and act as a community—not only with fellow Americans but with the rest of the world.

Hollywood Huckabee?

2007-05-04T11:07:00.000-04:00

By Corey Hutchins

Former Arkansas Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee not only dropped the pounds since declaring his candidacy for U.S. president but seems like he might be styling himself to be the next American Cutie.

But Kevin Spacey, who campaigned for Jimmy Carter in ‘76 and Ted Kennedy after that, probably doesn’t like anything about Mike Huckabee except maybe that his not-so-liberal look-alike hails from the same small town as Bill Clinton— Hope, Arkansas.

It may be that “hope” is all Huckabee has left in his corner after his 38 percent viewer approval rating at MSNBC.com following the Republican debate last night. (Rating checked at 2 a.m. EDT.)

What Happened Hucky, didn’t you see The Negotiator?

City Paper writers: a hot commodity for corporate weeklies

2007-04-13T15:34:00.000-04:00

The editor of a Columbia free weekly contacted at least two City Paper contributing writers last week and offered them jobs. Possibly responding to a public or internal outcry against said corporate weekly’s dependence on pre-written press releases, advertisements masked as news and its seeming obsession with ballet cover stories, the beleaguered editor tried to reach a City Paper contributor as far away as Greenville.

Click here to read the entire article at www.columbiacitypaper.com

Senator Bill Mescher dies

2007-04-09T11:21:00.000-04:00

Lowcountry Republican Senator Bill Mescher died early Sunday after friends say he suffered a stroke.
Read More

Using Homer’s Iliad to better understand the actions of Stephen Garcia

2007-03-13T17:25:00.000-04:00

By Corey Hutchins

Using Homer’s Iliad to better understand the actions of Stephen Garcia

Nineteen-year-old USC quarterback recruit and current media falling star Stephan Garcia is the definition of a hero. Struggling against difficult and powerful forces, the young USC athlete, built like a Greek god with long brown flowing hair, has indeed manifested himself into a modern day Achilles.

Stephen Garcia Vandalism Update

2007-03-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

The State picked up the story this evening. Adam Biggs, the victim/witness, seemed evasive and reticent to talk to me this morning (which is why I withheld his name). I find it curious that no charges have been filed against Garcia. If he is found guilty, Spurrier needs to quit making excuses and get this kid under control.

-Todd Morehead

USC quarterback Stephen Garcia accused of vandalizing car, under investigation

2007-03-02T15:20:00.000-05:00

South Carolina star quarterback recruit, Stephen Garcia, appears to have been accused of vandalizing a car parked in front of the university’s Thomas Cooper Library on March 1, according to a library incident report obtained by Columbia City Paper. So far, no incident report has been filed by campus police, a spokeswoman said, as the case may still be under further investigation.
read more

comments closed

Teacher arrested for sex with minors

2007-03-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

Twenty-three-year-old-female middle school teacher Allenna Ward was arrested there today after officials say she may have had sex with five boys between the ages of 14 and 15.

The semi-cute teacher is being held on $110,000 bail and there’s no word yet on if the sex, which authorities say may have happened both inside the school, at a nearby motel and a park behind a restaurant, was worth it.

The students were from Bell Street Middle School.
-Corey Hutchins

Form Letter From Congressman Joe Wilson

2007-02-22T07:49:00.000-05:00

February 20, 2007

Mr. Todd Morehead
PO Box xxxx
Columbia, South Carolina 292xx

Dear Mr. Morehead,

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding
H.Con.Res. 63, a non-binding resolution opposing the President's
plan to increase troops in Iraq. I appreciate your taking the time to
write.

I understand your concerns and welcome your interest in
this matter. H.Con.Res. 63 was introduced by Representative Ike
Skelton (MO - 04) on February 12, 2007. Since that time, it
passed the House on February 16, 2007 by a vote of 246 - 182. I
did not vote in favor of this resolution. H.Con.Res. 63 is a non-
binding resolution that only serves to undermine our efforts in Iraq.

I believe that defeat in Iraq would have disastrous
consequences for the United States. Instead of working to advance
our mission in Iraq and promote victory, there are some members
of Congress that are committed to opposing President Bush's
efforts but offer no substantive alternatives. This is a resolution
that provides no solutions for the war in Iraq. Debating war is
positive and a guaranteed right that is offered to all Americans, but
empty resolutions with no policy directions do not move this
country forward and are primarily political.

My convictions are deeply derived from personal
experience and a historical perspective. My concerns have been
developed as a member of the Armed Services Committee, through
which I have visited Iraq six times, as a 31-year veteran of the
Army Reserves and S.C. Army National Guard, and as the proud
parent of an Iraq veteran. President Bush has laid out his plan for
realizing victory and pledged the United States' continued support
- contingent upon the Iraqis' commitment to step-up their efforts
toward achieving stability. This plan will require more of our
brave soldiers to join with Iraqi Security Forces to quell the
violence in Baghdad. Through combat experience, Iraqi forces
will mature and will more quickly assume full control of Iraq's
security.

The stakes in this war are too high and the consequences of
defeat too catastrophic. Al-Qaeda has openly stated Iraq is the
central front in the war on terror. As a member of the United
States House of Representatives, I have a responsibility and
obligation to the people of the 2nd District of South Carolina to
ensure that their safety is never compromised. Please be assured
that I will keep your views in mind as the debate on the War in
Iraq continues.

It is an honor to represent the people of the Second
Congressional District of South Carolina, and I value your input.

If I may be of further assistance to you, please do not
hesitate to contact me.
Very Truly Yours,

Joe Wilson
Member of Congress

Lounge Lizard Man Spotted Crooning in Columbia

2007-02-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

By Coleman St-Genesius

Several months back, I had a terrible nightmare. I dreamed my partner was begging me to attend a Billy Joel concert. I emphatically declined, as I had no desire to spend two hours packed in an elevator, which is the only place I’ve heard Billy Joel tunes in the past decade.

However, my incubus was real: My partner had purchased tickets online for himself and several other Billy Joel fanatics at 6 a.m. on a Saturday. A week later I learned that the concert was on Valentine’s Day. Geez, if I had known the event was on our national day of love, I probably would have been willing to succumb to several hours of tepid lounge music just to be with my valentine sweetie. So I told my partner to get me a ticket, which he did: three sections away from his B.J. posse. If that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

If you took all the piano entertainers the world over, from John Tesh to Liberace, and put them in a blender, the result would be Billy Joel. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’re not talking Kenny G-level entertainment. But it’s not Green Day, either.

Except for the Colonial Center staff, there wasn’t a single person of color in attendance. Being surrounded by 8,000 middle-aged WASPS is a rather odd sociological experience, especially when one witnesses thousands of Caucasians attempting to clap in unison.

Mr. Joel hardly strayed from his standard of collected hits, including the extraordinarily annoying, but historically-motivating, “We Didn’t Start the Fire” and “The River of Dream,” which has always struck me as plagiaristic knockoff of the ’50s hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”

When the pianomeister fired up “The River of Dreams,” I found it necessary to leave my seat and wander the Colonial Center. (To be honest, I didn’t want to barf on the two teenage bimbos in front of me, whose banshee screams reminded me of something from The Simpsons’ annual Halloween episode.) Like a Dante in music Purgatory, I stumbled in circles, passing cotton candy booths and $50 T-shirt vendors, wiping the drool from my mouth that was caused from a barely audible rendition of “My Life,” when I heard the unexpected opening riffs of a truly classic rock-and-roll tune.

I rushed back to my seat and found myself shouting insanely for an unknown, fat Joel groupie named Chainsaw, who torched the stage with a white-hot cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” This was far and away the highlight of the night, but things quickly returned to their lukewarm state, as Mr. Joel followed with a ludicrous rap version of “Big Shot,” wherein he nearly decapitated his saxophonist with his microphone stand. (Joel might be a New York Jew, but he’s certainly no Beastie Boy.)

Actually, one has to give Billy Joel some credit. Most lounge lizards would slough their skins at the thought of being upstaged by a groupie. But Mr. Joel is impressively comfortable with himself: He spent half his concert making self-effacing remarks about his panus and balding pate. Of course, he made no excuses for his music.

Don’t get me wrong: How many pop musicians credit Aaron Copland, Beethoven and Chopin as inspirations? Billy Joel is an accomplished pianist, and despite the fact that he has some amazing musicians on the stage—especially the trumpeter, whose solo on the Joel attic song “Zanzibar” was pure music heaven—I’d have found the whole evening more tolerable if the stage was just a piano and piano man…and a wet bar.

As expected, the concert concluded with “Piano Man,” which, no matter what you think of Billy Joel, is an American classic lounge song. Of course, for my money I would have rather seen Sammy Davis Jr. belt out “Mister Bojangles.”

Did I mention Harry Connick Jr. is playing at the Township Auditorium in March?

Where have all the Sammy’s gone?

Billy Joel appeared in concert at the Colonial Center on February 14.

Breakfast with presidential candidate Chris Dodd

2007-02-17T14:31:00.000-05:00

Analysis by Todd Morehead

Early Saturday morning Mac’s on Main is overflowing with local Democrats. Over at the buffet line people crack jokes, shake hands vigorously and slap each others backs while the major players in the local Democratic party hang to the side in blue suits sipping coffee from Styrofoam cups and talking among themselves. On the other side of the front window, a homeless man in low slung red sweat pants bends deeply to examine some form of detritus on the sidewalk before shuffling on, while a local television news affiliate prepares for a live feed.

Everyone is awaiting the arrival of Sen. Chris Dodd who, along with Sen. Joe Biden, recently called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the S.C. State House grounds. But when Dodd arrived and took the stage at Mac’s he stuck to the party line, calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq and stressing the importance of improving the country’s public education system. Barack Obama said the same thing at his Friday rally. So did John Edwards at a recent book signing in Columbia. Doubtless Hillary Clinton will echo those sentiments at her Allen University town hall meeting Monday.

But, Dodd did stray from the party line at least to address issues like predatory lending and President Bush’s recent abrogation of Habeas Corpus.

The current chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, Dodd called for stricter regulations on predatory lending and vowed to “go after credit card companies, too.”

The senator’s Web site features a large banner calling for the reinstatement of Habeas Corpus and he announced to the breakfasting Democrats that on Tuesday he introduced a bill to restore Habeas Corpus protections to detainees that will also limit presidential authority to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions.

After his brief talk, Dodd took a few quick questions before flying back to Washington, D.C. to attend a rare Saturday session with the Senate. Democrats, now in control of the Senate, called the emergency session for a procedural vote to advance a nonbinding resolution criticizing President Bush’s plan to boost the number of U.S. forces in Iraq.

“But I’ll be back soon,” Dodd said. “You’re going to be sick of seeing me down here

The hidden destruction of the Appalachian Mountains

2007-02-15T09:56:00.000-05:00

It’s called “mountaintop removal” mining. In West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, coal companies blast as much as 600 feet off the top of the mountains, then dump the rock and debris into mountain streams. Over 300,000 acres of the most beautiful and productive hardwood forests in America have already been turned into barren grasslands. Mountaintop removal mining increases flooding, contaminates drinking water supplies, cracks foundations, and showers nearby towns with dust and noise from blasting.

The Mountaintop Removal Road Show features a beautiful and thought-provoking 22-minute slide show with traditional Appalachian music and culture by Lexington, Kentucky environmental activist Dave Cooper. Discussion to follow the program.

Monday Feb 19 @ 4:00

Green Quad, Learning Center, the Lounge

The Green (West) Quad Learning Center is located at the corner of Wheat

and Sumter Streets. Call 777-1994 for more information.

Sponsored by SAGE, Students Allied for a Greener Earth, and Green (West) Quad Learning Series

Project goes south on North Main

2007-02-13T01:50:00.000-05:00

City council members to meet with North Main residents Feb. 15

By Todd Morehead

The Elmwood, Cottontown, and Earlewood communities of North Main Street house one of the greatest concentrations of middleclass residents in Columbia alongside Shandon and Rosewood. Many feel the historic area should be a feather in the cap of city officials who have invested themselves so heavily in the revitalization of downtown. Yet some homeowners in the North Main area worry that Columbia City Council may welsh on a streetscaping project they’ve been promising for years.
“Elmwood has long been neglected because it is located between two [city council] districts and not in the heart of a single member district,” says Elmwood area resident Chris Barczak. According to him, city council members should look at what is healthy for a city as a whole rather than district members attempting to pacify their individual districts.
“That’s the problem with single-member districts,” he said. “They should represent the city as a whole.”
City Council will vote soon on potential funding for the beautification of the 1.2 miles of North Main Street between Elmwood Ave. and Parkside Drive. The beautification plan could include landscaping, resurfacing the road, burying utility lines, putting in new street lights, traffic signals, crosswalks and sidewalks. Sam Davis and other council members will present an update on the status of the project and take questions from the community Feb. 15 at Reformation Lutheran Church on the corner of River Drive and Union Street. Residents of the area are encouraged to attend, they said.

You Say Tomato...

2007-02-07T15:20:00.000-05:00

Free Times staff writer, Ron Aiken, was quick to correct a reference in Todd Morehead’s article “Dirty Dancing” in the Jan 31 issue, in which Morehead referred to him as a restaurant reviewer.

Aiken, who coined the phrase, “Whigtastic Breakfast Sampler” in a December column, told City Paper, “I am not a restaurant reviewer.” City Paper regrets the error and would like to assure readers that Mr. Aiken’s following articles are also not restaurant reviews:

“Of Sin and Salty Nuts” Vol. 20, Issue 4 (Salty Nut Cafe)

“The Trouble with Truffles” Vol. 20, Issue 3 (USC Wine and Beverage Institute)

“Ten Course Dinners at Solstice Slam Dunk” Vol. 19, Issue 46 (Solstice)

“ ‘C’ is for Cookie” Vol. 19, Issue 40 (Jammin’ Java)

Al Gore Nominated for Academy Awards and for Nobel Peace Prize

2007-02-07T15:19:00.000-05:00

By Judit Trunkos

This year started with great success for former Vice President Al Gore, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize as well as an Academy Award for his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. In order to get his message about global warming across, Gore decided to try a different type of mass communication and as a result of the documentary, his message was heard this time.

After losing the presidency on a recount of votes in 2000, Gore stepped down from public life to spend more time on issues he felt were more important than his popularity. He teamed up with David Guggenheim to produce a documentary on global warming in order to shake people up and make them realize the consequences of pollution. In the film, Gore and Guggenheim demonstrate and explain the phenomenon of “Greenhouse Effect” and how the industrialized world is responsible for changing the temperature of the climate by increasing fossil fuel burning. An Inconvenient Truth makes the viewer realize the imminent danger and long-term catastrophe that our world will face if no changes are made to our environmental policies and restrictions.

So far, the documentary has garnered international attention and the two nominations—both in the worlds of entertainment and science— have undoubtedly increased the awareness of global warming and have also attracted attention to Gore. After viewing the sudden popularity of the former vice president, many feel that this is only the beginning of a well-planned presidential campaign for 2008. When asked, Gore did not confirm or exclude the possibility of trying one more time.

Brownback speaks, pounds pulpit in Columbia

2007-02-02T17:52:00.000-05:00

Analysis by Corey Hutchins

“I’m down with the brown.”

That’s what one S.C. Republican operative campaigning for the Kansas senator, said in the buffet line prior to GOP presidential hopeful Sam Brownback’s luncheon speech Friday, Feb. 2 at the fairgrounds in Columbia.

The banquet room was packed with folks awaiting the senator’s announcement, which when it finally came sounded more like a sermon than the average campaign speech. For their part, members in attendance peppered Brownback’s more religious quips with the obligatory “amen.”

Knowing full well he was in the midst of a Republican stronghold and not an event at the Politically Correct Police Academy, Brownback opened his speech with anecdotes of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, calling him a “good man.” (Brownback spoke about Thurmond for three minutes before identifying himself or declaring his candidacy.)

From then on, the Midwest farm boy talked of how we can’t let God be run out of the public and how the United States needs to end cancer in the next 10 years. Reverting back to his days on the farm, Brownback pulled a piece of cloth from his pocket proclaiming that half of it was made with cotton and the other half corn. He used his prop to push for the use of ethanol and covered his “grass to gas” idea.

“I’m not talking about marijuana,” he joked.

While the senator insisted he did not have plants in the audience, those who asked questions following the speech lobbed them like helium balloons, which Brownback swung at as if with a road sign.

Abortion: “I will help to end abortion in America.”

“Amen,” said members of the crowd. “Amen.”

War: We’re in a “poorly named war” (war on terror) with a militant, fascist Islam and “we have to win.” He also does not think the troop surge is the right way to go.

Illegal immigration: “I supported the fence,” he said, and he wants Social Security to work together with the INS.

“Amen,” they said. “Amen.”

Healthcare: He’s for price transparency, for medical information being private and expansion of health savings accounts.

The last question, which Brownback said he feared would be a high-inside fastball, came out more like a knuckleball, both unexpected and tricky. How will the senator deal with the issue of gang activity in America? Brownback stared down the knuckleball and scanned the dugout for his favorite bat, the old standby, the one with the grips worn down until it shone like sun on a wheat field. The senator smiled and swung away.

“Have to involve faith,” he said.

“Amen,” they said. “Amen.”

Lunch at the Patio, Part 2

2007-02-01T14:16:00.000-05:00

By Todd Morehead

City Paper recently revisited the best Cookin’ with Ass of 2006 which featured a review of The Patio Cafe at Patterson Hall, an all-female undergraduate dorm at USC. On a recent press day one of our more twisted associates was so inspired by the re-run that he invited the staff to lunch at The Patio (though not, we would later learn, on his tab).

Paul Blake, publisher of the City Paper, seemed particularly excited at the prospect and urged Sean Rayford and myself into taking lunch at 10:45 a.m. though we were already behind schedule on the issue.

“I think they open at eleven,” he said, breathing heavily.

“Is it cold out?” Rayford yawned from under a leather coat on the couch. He’d slept in the office again and until the lunch invitation arose, we hadn’t bothered to wake him.

“You’ll be warmed up once we get there,” Blake said. “Trust me.”

Ten minutes later, Blake jerked his car into a parking space on the far side of Pickens Street and exited the vehicle almost before the engine had time to shut off. He jogged toward the sidewalk, rubbing his hands together more from jittery excitement than from the cold. His zipped up his sport sweater against the wind and sped on ahead of us.

Rayford lit a cigarette as he walked. “Look at us. Three creepy old dudes heading to have lunch at an all girl’s dorm.” He still had red streaks on the side of his face from the seams in the couch cushion, a cowlick blowing lightly in the breeze.

“We’ll just play it off like we’re German grad students,” I said.

“Let’s go,” Blake yelled up ahead, “Trenholm’s already up there.”

“Is he back in school?” I asked, trotting to catch up.

“I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure he commuted downtown for this.”

We had to slow to a brisk walk up the Pickens Street hill before we veered into the park and crept up the back pathway toward the dorm. As we made our way around Patterson Hall, I found myself winded from trying to keep up with Paul. We passed a row of pink and purple bicycles chained to a rack and he began to pick up his pace.

After City Paper reprinted the original restaurant review for The Patio, we expected the place to be full of lecherous old men. But only Trenholm was there, waiting for us in the lobby. He grinned broadly when we approached. A few undergrad girls in Palmetto T-Shirts and flip-flops had begun to trickle in to wait for the cafe to open. A brunette chewed on brightly colored pen and blew an errant curl out of her eye while she made notes in the margins of her textbook.

Blake’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered, still panting from the walk.

A gaggle of blondes in low-slung jeans sauntered by, giggling to each other.

“Yeah,” he raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side to take in the view, “we’re putting the finishing touches on the issue right now.”

He spent a few moments on the phone while the rest of us sat and made small talk and before long a Patio buffet attendant unlocked and opened the doors for business.

We were disappointed to find that they no longer offered chicken fingers on Wednesday and realized we’d have to make do with something healthy. The freshman girls had formed a long line at the salad bar, so Rayford and I grabbed our trays and made way for the pizza line. Trenholm and Paul had apparently discovered some type of stir-fry station across the room. Standing in line and gazing out the large windows, I realized that our original review was right; a middle-aged man on an upper floor of the Park Circle apartments could probably read the menu boards at the Patio with a high powered telescope. Though unlike the days when Paul used to live at Park Circle, the menu boards at the Patio now conveniently feature a calorie count next to each entree.

“Did you notice the calorie counters?” Rayford asked when he slapped his tray down at our table. I couldn’t tell if he was impressed or peeved by them.

We sat and pigged out on pizza and salad and traded stories about various jobs we’d been fired from while herds of coeds giggled quietly from nearby tables and slurped loudly on pink scrunchy straws. Before long, it was time to return to the office.

Stuffed to the gills from lunch, we found that we had to make slower progress through the park on the way to the car.

“That was pretty good pizza,” I said to no one in particular, zipping up my jacket against the chill.

“Yeah, we’ll have to come back when the weather warms up.”

“Mmm. For the fresh fruit?”

“No. The mini skirts.”

Bottom of the Barrel

2007-02-01T10:26:00.000-05:00

Military Recruiter and Cheerleader Coach Engage in Sex-ploitation of Sixteen Year Old Student

By Tom Turnipseed

The Ware Shoals High School scandal is scorching the front pages of South Carolina’s newspapers with a sordid saga of alcohol, sex, and shady shenanigans involving a 28 year old married cheerleader coach, a 29 year old South Carolina National Guard recruiter and a 21 year old guardsman with 16 year old high school cheerleaders. It includes a sexual rendezvous at a local motel during school hours with the cheerleader coach/counselor and the military recruiter having sex in one room while the other guardsman had sex with a 16 year old cheerleader in another room. Two 16 year old cheerleaders went to the motel and both were given vodka by Jill Moore, their cheerleader coach.

Marjorie Riddle and Chuck Crumbo reported in the State that a male student had sex with Ms. Moore too, and that Moore also had sex at the National Guard Armory with the recruiter, Sgt. 1^st Class Thomas Fletcher.

According to law enforcement investigators, Sgt. Jeremy Pileggi, has admitted having sex with the 16 year old cheerleader but the local sheriff’s office said it would not file charges against him because the age of consent in South Carolina is 16.

Seanna Adcox of the Associated Press reported on Jan. 28 that some members of the South Carolina General Assembly think the investigation into the Ware Shoals High School scandal will spur the legislature to change the age of consent from 16 to 18.

House Speaker Bobby Harrell said, “We should certainly change that to 18. The fact that a 16 year-old can consent is not something I was aware of until this occurred. I suspect a lot of members of the Legislature and citizens of South Carolina did not know.”

However, Spartanburg prosecutor Trey Gowdy said he wished the legislature wouldn’t raise the age of consent. Gowdy feels the best way for lawmakers to respond to the problems presented by the Ware Shoals scandal is for the legislature to enhance sentencing against the adults violating and abusing their positions of trust. If the allegations are correct “Entrusting your children to a school system and military department ...is the most troubling aspect”, said Gowdy.

Jill Moore has been charged with supplying alcohol and cigarettes to the female students and contributing to the delinquency of a minor for the motel sex-capades.

Meanwhile, Sgts. Pileggi and Fletcher have been suspended by the National Guard. The Guard said that if its investigation reveals what the Greenwood County sheriff’s office has concluded, the soldiers might be charged with: Failure to obey a military order; dereliction of duty; false official statement; accessory after the fact; and wrongful appropriation of government property The last charge would derive from sheriff’s reports that Moore and Fletcher had sex in the recruiter’s office at the Ware Shoals armory.

Army regulations, applying also to the National Guard, prohibit recruiters from having sex, dating and drinking alcohol with “all high school students.” Pileggi and Fletcher could be fined or jailed and kicked out of the National Guard if they are found guilty.

Maj. Gen. Harry Burchstead, the Guard’s deputy adjutant general and a former S.C. assistant attorney general and prosecutor said, “This type of misconduct is intolerable, and we are currently reviewing recruiting policies and procedures to ensure something like this cannot and will not happen in the future.”

Burchstead also said the Guard’s soldiers were “serving honorably in harm’s way," and, “the alleged actions of these individuals in no way reflect the standards of conduct of members of the South Carolina National Guard.”

Misconduct cases against military recruiters increased more than 50 percent to 630 in 2005, from 400 in 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

On Saturday, John Hendren reported on ABC-TV’s World News that the new troop surge in Iraq and President Bush’s call to expand the ranks of the Army and Marines by 92,000 troops was putting pressure on standards for military recruits for the all volunteer army. Will there be enough high‑quality recruits to fill the expanding ranks? Eli Flyer, a former senior manpower analyst at the Department of Defense, points to a disturbing development: Army officials are giving more waivers for troops with medical conditions that might otherwise disqualify them, and more waivers for troops with criminal records.

"There is no question that standards will suffer if they have to, in order to meet the specific year goals," Flyer said.

Stephen Green, who is charged with raping and murdering a 14 year old girl and her family last year in the Iraqi town of Mahmudiya, had previous criminal convictions and mental problems that might otherwise have made him ineligible.

"The increases here," Flyer said, "will have the effect of giving more turnover within the Army, more behavioral problems, more psychiatric problems."

As President Bush pushes his escalation of the Iraq war we are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find the necessary manpower. The military recruiters like those who violated their public trust in the sordid scandal of alcohol and sex at Ware Shoals high school are examples of what we might expect as we hit the bottom of that barrel.

Tom Turnipseed is an attorney, writer and political activist in Columbia, South Carolina. www.turnipseed.net

FIve Points Association Internal Memo Leaked!

2007-01-30T13:23:00.000-05:00

Our news editor recently slept with Amanda, the new Five Points Association intern, three minutes after meeting her at Chubbys and she left this behind at his apartment. Woops!

(Jokes! This memo isn't real, but you could imagine a recent FPA memo reading something like this......)

Five Points Association
c/o members only
cc. sales@free-times.com

Hey team!
I take it by now you’ve all read the ginormous front-page write-up by Jeff Wilkinson in (drum roll plz) The State this Sunday (Kelly, tell him the check’s in the mail, lol!) but what a good job!, hehe. I’m sure the letters are totally pouring in from Rock Hill to Orangeburg with people wondering like what the hell is 5-points and why is it on the front of their paper. It’s like crazytown what we can do when we all work together! ;)
Anyway, on to biz-nass. I guess it’s obvious that we goofed on the “Free Generica” campaign by trying to be too “ironic.” Like what’s up, people, hello! I thought irony was in. ugh! Anyway, Dennis, I got the proposal from The Gap this weekend and they said they’re right on track (and, duh, they totally loved the article too) so what I’m thinking is if you can get that guy you know on the zoning board to, like, re-zone Harper’s? we can put the Red Lobster there and we just won’t have to worry about parking AT ALL!!1
So, okie-dokey (<--- big dork, I know), well I’m really excited about all this and ya’ll should be too! Not just anybody can spin an entire city block of stores going out of business into a positive thing (and I can’t stress it enough how we have to stay. On. Track. With. The. Positive. Thing. [Denny if that means taking more workshops with Dr. Schwartz then we’ll expense it out as “petty-cash,” lmao) NOT a problem. Hello! Can we say Three Rivers, whaaaaat?
ALSO, I keep getting these angry letters from people who aren’t in the club but it’s totally mostly the (finger quotes) “local business boo-hoos” so I know I shouldn’t let it bother me, but dammit sometimes they can be soooo mean. I just keep sending them Starbucks gift certificates like Debbie said. Oh and Mr. Whit, remind everybody that the parking meter people are ONLY SUPPOOSED TO GIVE TICKTZ to ppl from OUT OF STATE. There’s one guy down there who is just giving them to seriously, like evvverybodddy.
And omg Merritt I almost forgot I still need your information so I can take that grant writing course for you on Pheonix University Online this week.
OKay well, I don’t want my “first official memo” [evvvvrrr} to go to long so I’ll finish it in like two shakes of a clams tail with just the information on who we’ve got on board to move to 5-points once we get all these family-shmamily businesses out of here like Councilwoman “bad hair” Sinclair in a constituency representation, um, thingie or something (I’m trying, ppl!). So…here’s what we got:
• Move over Groucho’s and paint me like a clown— Ronald McDonald is coming to town.
• Hot Topic (but they said Salty’s will totally have to go)
• Starbucks. (Seriously, in the BATHROOM of the one that’s already here… their idea, not mine!)
• A Border’s satellite store to replace Dr. Books.
• Super-DUPER-cuts
• Holla for a Dolla
• Yesterday’s is just that—yesterday, lol, Ruby Tuesday’s, guys! We got ‘em.

So there it is, team, my first memoranDUMB, hahaha! I hope it’s OKay for everyone and if you need anything just tell my uncle and he’ll fax it over to me or leave it on my desk (which is like amaaaazing by the way, Thanx, Debbie for the pink EVERYyyerything).

Your new intern,
Amanda!

-----document obtained by Corey Hutchins------

First Friday’s in Five Points start Feb 2...Bring Your Glock

2007-01-23T13:10:00.000-05:00

Despite the Five Points Association spending $90,000 on the Clean & Safe project, a few USC students found on Friday that the area is anything but safe.
http://www.les.sc.edu/crimealert.asp

The Five Points Association is kicking off one of its first events geared towards helping retailers, First Fridays. Starting Feb 2, evening events will be scheduled for the area and retailers will be open till at least 9pm.

The extra hours will give concerned citizens plenty of time to pop into businesses owned by Association board members and ask why money was spent to build a second fountain instead of installing extra lighting and police call boxes.

Perhaps the Clean & Safe crew will be present in their yellow Bat Mobile truck to keep us all safe with their push brooms while we shop. Bring plenty of quarters for parking meters if you plan on arriving before 7pm… and of course bring your glock.

Minimal response from workers on minimum wage issue

2007-01-22T12:56:00.000-05:00

By Todd Morehead

The South Carolina chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) fell far from the tree on Friday with only two of its estimated 100 members gathering to rally outside Sen. Lindsey Graham’s Columbia office.

The organization is calling for Senator Graham to support the proposed federal minimum wage hike without tacking on a bill that would attach special interest tax breaks. The original bill, first introduced by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), would raise the federal minimum hourly wage for the first time in nearly a decade from $5.15 to $7.25 in three phases over the next two years. The U.S. House already passed the bill with no tax breaks attached.

Senator Graham, however, has vowed to only support the bill if it comes as part of a larger package, stating that simply raising the minimum wage would deny job opportunities for young people as small businesses-- financially strapped from paying higher wages-- wouldn’t have enough revenue left over to afford to create positions for teenagers.

“If you’re a full time worker with skills and the ability to produce, you’ll blow by the minimum wage in about sixty days,” Graham told conservative radio talk show host Mike Gallagher in August. “Nobody is making the minimum wage that is a full time worker with a good work ethic...”

Ideally, according to Graham, the bill would also include tax credits for tuition, would provide tax cuts for married middle class families and would do away with the current death tax, which Graham described as “socialist.”

Hector Vaca, a lead coordinator with the SC ACORN chapter, isn’t buying it.

“Over the past decade Congress has given themselves nine raises, yet the people haven’t gotten anything,” he pointed out at the Friday rally. “Working class families deserve to be paid for their hard work.”

Doubtless, the workers of South Carolina would support a hike in pay, yet they seem reticent to publicly rally in support of the bill.

“I can’t get anyone to come out,” says Jean Busby, who heads up ACORN’s Columbia office. “I think that a lot of people believe that nothing can change, that this is the way it just has to be. A lot of people are afraid that they’ll lose their jobs if they rally in public.”

ACORN isn’t letting the low turnout dampen their spirits, though.

“If they don’t pass the [minimum wage] bill on a federal level,” said Vaca, “we’ll push to have it passed on a state level.”

Truth Hurts

2007-01-22T08:26:00.000-05:00

Here's the audio from the first article on FPA.
One unhappy camper claimed they were misquoted, so I figured they have told that lie to enough people at this point that it was a good time to post the audio.

http://www.columbiacitypaper.com/hiltner.wav

The real lies in this audio are the claims that I can pick up bank statements for FPA at Carolina First, which is not true...and the promise to provide me with board minutes and surveys.

We've been asking for this information and more since May and the FPA continues to intentionally violate open records laws.

I wonder why?

- Paul Blake

Five Points Swindle
Editorial by Paul Blake

The Five Points Association gets hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars. Too bad the association is currently defunct.

The S.C. Secretary of State’s office confirmed on Monday the Five Points Association (FPA) had failed to file required financial records with the state by the Aug. 15, 2005, deadline.
“The organization is expired,” Melissa Dunlap, the chief of staff at the secretary of state’s office, told City Paper.
Dennis Hiltner, the president and acting treasurer of the association, was required by law to file by the deadline but failed to do so. When City Paper asked questions, including why the association missed the deadline and whether holding both the office of president and treasurer created a conflict of interest, Hiltner told the newspaper, “I won’t be the treasurer after next meeting.”
When asked why, he said, “I just decided.”
Five Points Association Executive Director Merritt Brewer announced during the Aug. 24 membership meeting that the association received $220,000 in hospitality tax funding for 2006.
During that membership meeting, FPA Vice President Jeff Whitt announced decisions about the allocation of the funds. Part of the money will be used to finance and advertise a future pub crawl involving Budweiser, the purchasing of pub crawl t-shirts designed by Virginia-based Portico Publications, owner of the Free Times, and the hiring of C.C. Riggs Advertising Agency.
Columbia City Council's approval of funding for a defunct organization should raise questions from Five Points merchants and Columbia taxpayers. How can the city give hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospitality tax revenue to an organization that has failed to file proper paperwork with authorities?
“The city gets a full copy of financial statements before they are awarded money,” Brewer said, claiming that the decision to provide funding likely came before the FPA was required to file paperwork with the state.
Mayor Bob Coble said he didn’t know whether the city looked at the FPA’s previous financial records before giving away hospitality tax money.
“Obviously the Five Points Association is a well-known entity,” Coble said.
Coble also said he was aware of a new organization that merchants had started in Five Points and also said he believed Hiltner has done a “very good job” with the FPA.
But that “very good job” would certainly be debatable for anyone taking the time to look at the tax return filed for special events in 2004.
According to records obtained by City Paper, some of the FPA’s special events— which are subsidized by public money— are money-bleeding operations.
Paint Five Points, for example, lost $20,607 in 2004.
The Five Points After Five event lost $8,926, but the year prior (2003) shows a $6,037 profit. Why the $14,963 difference in just one year?
More questionable, though, is the incredibly popular Saint Patty’s Day festival. For the 2004 festival, the FPA claims it made only $64,080 in profit. Not bad, eh? Well, that’s after claiming a whopping $279,723 in expenses.
Where did all the money go?
City Paper doesn’t know. And neither do taxpayers.
When asked about the expenses, FPA representatives assured the newspaper that they would be forthcoming with the details of these expenditures. So far, the organization hasn’t been.
“I think it’s a situation where they are doing the same thing over and over,” said Randy Dennis, who thinks Five Points After Five should be breaking even and not losing money.
The supposed “successful” concert series creates a great amount of exposure for Budweiser. The beer company, in turn, writes a tax-deductible check directly to the association. This “donation” gives Budweiser tens of thousands of dollars worth of advertising placed by the association as well as signage at the event. The hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars funneled to the association by City Council, tax exceptions and synergistic partnerships make it a sweet deal for all involved, including Free Times, a City Paper competitor that has not reported aggressively on the FPA.
Meanwhile, many of the daytime merchants located in Five Points feel excluded. In May, 18 merchants formed a new organization called Our Five Points, as first reported by City Paper. One of the founders, Elizabeth Cromer, owner of It’s All In The Name, claims the group now has about 30 members.
The most recent Paint Five Points this summer left out two obvious Five Points merchants.
“I’m a new gallery in Five Points and I wasn’t aware of Paint Five Points and they didn’t tell [Portfolio Art Gallery owner] Judy either,” said Laura Brown owner of The Artists Basement.
City Paper has had its own experiences with the FPA. In May, the first meeting that representatives for this newspaper attended, Hiltner added to the agenda his complaint of black City Paper newspaper boxes chained to lampposts and trash cans. His concern was over destroying expensive green paint. This concern came the same week that City Paper reported on the formation of Our Five Points.
City Paper has since moved offices to Five Points and joined the FPA at the Aug. 24 meeting. The newspaper immediately offered to sponsor Five Points After Five. Brewer agreed to allow the sponsorship.
But Brewer, of course, is outranked by President Hiltner. Brewer later wrote in an e-mail to City Paper, “I can only have 1 print sponsor. They give us a great deal too. The Free Times has long been a part of this event and they promote the hell out of it! The are necessary (according to my surveys) for the success of the event. Your being a part of the association is great... and because of that I will help you with whatever you need, but I can’t have 2 print sponsors for 1 event.”
This “successful” event lost $8,926 in 2004.
Meanwhile, the official sponsors for the event include 10 bars and restaurants and two radio stations. Brewer promised to provide City Paper with the “surveys” in the next two weeks.
“They are not representing the merchants in Five Points,” said Cromer of It’s All In The Name. “I think new leadership would be a good thing.”
When repeatedly asked why the association filed in 2004 with Hiltner’s signature but not 2005, Hiltner raised his voice. “I forgot, Paul,” he snapped. “Hang my ass.”
Instead, I think we’ll just show our readers the rope.

Savage Love Web Extra

2007-01-12T22:39:00.000-05:00

So after having a crappy web site for a year and a half and winning our own "Worst Web Site" award for '06, it was time for a change.
We'll have a new web site up on Monday that will include neat things like Savage Love web extras. Here's one now for you sicko's that can't wait.

I thought your response to FOG was spot on. The fact that she dumped a guy whom she had contemplated marrying over a foot fetish (of all things) was bad enough—from what we can infer, the guy was never overbearing about his kink, and rubbed FOG’s feet for her pleasure (relief after a hard day of waiting tables) as much as his own.
But what I think is worse about FOG was revealed in her letter: “I know a lot of freaks write to you, and I enjoy reading about freaks, but I don’t want to date a freak.” So she wants to read about the problems of “freaks” but not have to deal with “freaks” on a personal level. As long as the freaks remain the other in the paper and outside her personal realm, it’s okay; when she has to deal with a sicko that likes to rub feet in her own life, then it gets way too real.
It seems like FOG is unaware that all guys bring some idiosyncrasies with them—whether it’s feet or pegging or calling you mommy during sex, or a host of other non-sex-related baggage. She should have counted herself lucky to find a guy with such a mild fetish (she reads the letters in your column, after all, and gets freaked out by a foot fetishist?!) and lived happily ever after. Hopefully karma does exist and the next guy she dates will dump her flat for a more tolerant girl.
On Your Side

•••

Just wanted to offer a little support to FOG—this sort of weird fetishy stuff is even more common than you think. I used to date this girl who I thought was normal, and who would give me blowjobs (sometimes I get erections). One day she tells me she enjoys doing it, so of course I broke up with her! I was like, “They don’t call it a ‘job’ for nothing, freak!” Then there was this other girl I liked to have sex on, but one time she started making this, like, pleasurable moaning sound and I realized she was really into it! Fuck that. I don’t need that sort of weirdness in my life.
But keep the faith, FOG, there are normal people like us out there. I finally met a girl who is disgusted by physical contact, and who I get my own selfish pleasures out of by telling her no one will ever love her. See, stories like ours can have happy endings!
Seriously Another Dumbfuck

•••

I think you went a little hard on Freaked Out Girl.
Yes, she’s naive and selfish and has probably had her concept of masculinity formed by watching Hugh Grant vehicles. However, what I don’t think you took into consideration was that she was being involved in sexual behavior without her knowing and therefore, without her consent. Had these foot rubs occurred in the context of sexual behavior, you would be 100 percent right. But the behavior was occurring in a nonsexual context. I would react differently if someone asked to take my Polaroid to take it home and shit on it and masturbate versus adding it to their men-with-mustaches scrapbook. What he did was wrong, even if he’s probably much less of an asshole than she is.
A. J.

•••

Hey, FOG? How can you be so quick to judge someone?! Did you in fact enjoy the foot rubs? Of course you did! Not very many boyfriends will rub their girlfriend’s feet every night after work! Who freaking cares if he enjoyed it as much or more than you did? Did you ever feel threatened while he was rubbing your feet? I’m guessing no since you let him do it so often.
Having a foot fetish is so innocent! I am a 28-year-old female and I LOVE FEET! I love rubbing feet! I love it when my feet are rubbed! Toe sucking is fucking awesome! Even people who don’t expect it to be think so once they experience it!
I’m glad that Dan has been using you as a shining example of sexual immaturity and selfishness! You deserve every lashing he’s given you! It’s girls like you that give us straight girls a bad rap!
Foot Lover For Life

•••

Your response to Freaked Out Girl was a little harsh, Dan, in that it ignored a pretty fundamental part of the equation: Her boyfriend hadn’t been honest with her. He was getting his rocks off by massaging her feet. Sure, she liked the massages, but how does that exempt him from telling her that he’s using her sexually in a way that she is unaware of? Your response to that woman who recorded the noises of men in a nearby public restroom was pretty straight up—it was wrong. So why does Mr. Foot Fetish get a free pass for lying about using his girlfriend sexually in a way that, while without harm, is unacknowledged? FOG is definitely an intolerant asshole, but her boyfriend was using her feet without telling her. She’s got some right to be pissed.
Katie

•••

This girl had a man who would massage her feet when she got off work? Most women can’t find a man who will pick up their underwear! Why the hell does she care why he did it. He did it! I am a male and do not have a foot fetish, but I would love to date somebody who would massage my feet all the time. They could be as sexually excited as they wanted as long as they kept rubbing.
You are right, FOG is going to regret breaking up with the guy. It will be when she is married to some ass who won’t help around the house much less massage her feet, while she spends much of her day chasing kids around. She will think back to the guy who would sit and massage her feet for her. She will think how she could have been saying, “Sure, you can rub my feet right after you finish the dishes.” Boy, she is going to regret this.
T.

•••

Dan, your analysis of FOG was close, but not quite on. Her issue wasn’t that he derived pleasure from it, too. Her issue was the broader, crippling female life traps of expectation and validation. Her expectation was that this act was purely selfless because he loved her. Selfless, like all those times she did things for him—not necessarily of a sexual nature, without ever mentioning that it bothered her, or that she’d rather not, or any other self-denying actions that so many women put up with without ever expressing their own preferences. (Hi Mom, how ya doin’?)
To have someone rub her feet, just for her, was a true indication of how he must feel. It validated her worthiness to him by his acting the same way she acts. When that bubble got popped—through honest, good faith communication—she recoiled from that activity because her expectation that he was doing it just for her.
Clearly FOG has never spent much time in her head wondering about what makes her tick, otherwise she’d have figured out that there is simply nothing wrong with him getting off on rubbing her feet. If you both benefit, isn’t that an ideal model?
Psychologist in Action

•••

Your vitriolic response to Freaked Out Girl was childish and unprofessional. I would expect a decent advice columnist to be quite a bit more detached and objective, focusing on delivering actual advice instead of spewing your whiny invective. It seems to me that Freaked Out Girl struck a chord with you on a personal level. I suspect that as a homosexual, you identify in some way, whether conscious of it or not, with “freaks” and “weirdoes.” And you obviously are very defensive of these freaks. Clearly, it serves you to claim you’ve never met a “normal man,” although you contradict yourself in the very next sentence: “… kink and variance seem to be a natural, intrinsic aspect of male sexuality.”
Care to back that up with evidence? Can you cite any legitimate study that demonstrates that kink is the norm among men?
Just because Freaked Out Girl doesn’t want to be with a freak that gets off on feet doesn’t make her selfish. There are plenty of men out there capable of engaging in “normal,” healthy relationships who don’t feel the need to spank their partners, get peed on, or obsess about feet.
R. L.

•••

I can’t help but feel that you’ve seriously dropped the ball on your “advice” to Freaked Out Girl, the girl who reacted badly on finding out the foot massages her boyfriend gave her were actually a fetishistic turn-on for him.
First, when somebody uses you as a tool for his own sexual arousal without telling you, no matter how mild it may be or how little you know about it, it’s a bad thing. Just ask any woman who’s sick and tired of being ogled by strangers on the street, or anyone who’s ever found out their photo is being used by strangers on the internet to wank off to. It is not an irrational or selfish reaction to object to the idea that someone is not only doing something more for their pleasure than yours, but being dishonest about why they’re doing it.
Second, when you realize that somebody’s attraction to you lies overpoweringly in one particular aspect of your physiology rather than in the total package, it is neither irrational nor selfish to be afraid that you’re being objectified—just ask any woman with significantly bigger breasts than average. Plenty of women have asked with perfect legitimacy of their boyfriends, “Is he interested in me, or only in my ass/breasts/lips?”
Third, by her own admission FOG is only 20 years old. There are plenty of people at that age, Dan, who through no fault of their own are “sexually immature” by the definition you seem to imply (I myself didn’t lose my virginity until I was 23). It is neither irrational nor selfish to be freaked out by a fetish you haven’t encountered before, especially if you don’t know much about fetishes at all to begin with.
S. J. B.

•••

The fact that FOG dumped her boyfriend because he received any pleasure from rubbing her feet at all revealed not just some innate selfishness, BUT THAT SHE IS AS KINKY AS HE IS, ONLY IN THE DOMINATRIX SORT OF WAY, whether she realizes it, admits it, or not. You could have used her as an example to show your readers that we are ALL kinky—not just straight guys.
E. H.

•••

FOG mentioned that one of her “concerns” with having a foot fetishist for a husband is that she is unsure if he is marrying her or her feet. When she finds her mythical fetishless mate, will she feel more certain that he is marrying her and not her vagina? (Why can’t he marry both? It’s a package deal, really.) FOG’s ex is certainly one lucky man to be rid of an unappreciative bitch like her. Hope he finds a woman who knows how lucky she is to have a man that actually wants to rub her feet.
D. K.

•••

Okay, seriously, that’s some powerful hypocrisy you’re peddling there, Dan.
Sexual preferences, whether learned or innate, are things we don’t have a lot of control over—agreed? And even if they aren’t, it’s only in very rare cases that a “fetish” is genuinely worthy of universal disgust. So why is the same not true for sexual dislikes? If FOG finds foot fetishism repugnant, why does this make her worthy of such disdain? Is this not how she’s wired? Or is that not her choice? Isn’t it possible to have a “no-fetish” fetish?
FOG wasn’t saying she though foot fetishists were bad people; she just said she didn’t like it. I’m sorry, but it’s really, really hard to fuck or get foot massaged by somebody who’s getting a hard on or a clit on by something you find intolerable, and for some (not all) no amount of sexual charity will ever remove this disgust. Did FOG try? Maybe not. But why does FOG’s boyfriend’s pleasure automatically trump her displeasure? You’ll say, I guess, that a foot fetish is a harmless kink and since everybody ought to be GGG and sexually unselfish she’s a real jerk. Okay, true, her definition of “normal” is narrow and she’ll likely have dull sex the rest of her life. So? Let her find a picket-fence salesman named Vanilla Jim, set up permanent residence in the missionary position, and live boringly ever after.
Toleration does not require participation. Since when did sexual liberation become “being okay with just about everything” and not “being okay with what you like—even if what you like is dull sex?”
Tyranny of the Fetish

•••

Out of all the crappy girlfriends/boyfriends I’ve read about in Savage Love, FOG was the crappiest yet. You just were not harsh enough on this chick. She’s insane.
To FOG: I’m exactly your age and even I can tell you it’s things like this that relationships are all about: meeting each other’s needs. You need foot rubs… and he wants to give them to you. In fact, he really likes giving them. What’s the problem? And what’s so wrong about a foot fetish? If you are familiar enough with Savage Love to be writing in then you know that there is A LOT WORSE OUT THERE
Fetish-Free Young Dude

Charleston Bans Smoking

2007-01-12T08:06:00.000-05:00

Our columnist Will Moredock celebrates the Charleston ban, meanwhile Columbia still has the we "pretended to ban it" thing going on. Keep smokin it if you got 'em Columbia........

Charleston Clears the Air By Will Moredock

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we’re smoke-free at last!

So it appears that Charleston will finally become a smoke-free city.
After more than seven years of debate, discussion and study, City Council voted 9-4 last Tuesday night to snuff the butts in Charleston bars, restaurants and private clubs in the name of public health. One more reading and vote is required and that will likely come on January 23. The ordinance will go into effect in July and Charleston can finally breathe easily.
As late as this ordinance was in coming, there is still plenty of reason for celebration and congratulations. Perhaps the first to take a bow would be Dan Carrigan and Dianne Wilson, who have campaigned tirelessly through various organizations to achieve this day. Many citizens, business leaders and medical professionals came out at last week’s council meeting – and at several previous meetings over the years – to speak in favor of the ordinance.
At the January 9 meeting, representatives from the Charleston Branch NAACP, Trident United Way, Charleston Area League of Women Voters, the Hollings Cancer Center, the Medical University of South Carolina, the American Lung Association, the S.C. Hospital Association, the College of Charleston and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control all spoke in favor the new law, as did several business owners and workers. Two musicians appealed to make the venues where they perform free of secondhand smoke.
Kudos also for former Councilman Dr. Duke Hagerty, who first brought the issue to council’s attention in 1999. Charleston was the first municipality in the state to consider comprehensive smoke-free workplace protection. And thanks to Councilmen Paul Tinkler and Henry Fishburne, who kept the issue alive on council for more than two years.
Mayor Joe Riley showed real leadership as he addressed the council and the packed council chamber – the kind of leadership he should have shown on this issue years ago. He said what others on the council and in the community had already declared: The U.S. Surgeon General’s report on second-hand smoke, issued last July, tipped many opinions in favor of a smoking ban. The report said that there is no such thing as a safe amount of second-hand smoke and that air-filtration devices do not make air safe to breathe.
“Just because (the smoking ban) was not accepted before does not mean it was wrong,” Riley said in an eloquent and passionate statement. “It just means that we have new information, we have a new understanding….
“For me, in this process of consideration…I am confident that it is our responsibility to create smoke-free workplaces for people to work.” People could not simply change jobs because they don’t like breathing second-hand smoke, the mayor said. “People work where they can get a job.”
As they had in past meetings when the smoking ban came up for a vote, most black council members refused to come on board. In early discussion Tuesday night, James Lewis Jr., Robert Mitchell and Wendell Gilliard all expressed doubt about the smoking ordinance.
Gilliard seemed especially troubled as he spoke about the plague of violence that has racked the black community in the last year, leaving a record number of dead bodies – most of them young black men – on the streets of Charleston and North Charleston. “I think we need to rearrange our priorities,” he said. “I think we need to rid our community of illicit drugs and illicit guns.”
He held up pages from the Post and Courier, that paper’s annual report from each of several recent years on homicides in the Lowcountry. The pages were filled with small pictures of the year’s dead. “So you ask, what does this have to do with cancer? I can see it in your faces. Well, I’ll tell you: It’s another form of death.”
The anguish in his face and voice left no doubt with anyone that Gilliard was wrestling with the devil. And in the end, the councilman won, casting his vote for life.
One party that comes away from this long and surly debate with a badge of shame is the Post and Courier. Charleston’s daily newspaper has been morally AWOL on this issue, as it has on so many before.
The P&C continues to take the position that property rights trump public health, good public policy and common sense. This was the same position the reactionary old newspaper and its reactionary owners used to argue against desegregating public accommodations a half-century ago. And it’s the argument earlier generations of Southerners used to defend slavery.
The Post and Courier remains on the wrong side of history and the Curse of the Manigault hangs over this old city like a cloud of stale tobacco smoke.

Hard Words at Speakeasy

2007-01-08T13:11:00.000-05:00

Local bartender comes unhinged at the mere sight of Columbia City Paper publisher, Paul Blake. Ensuing rampage leaves customers stunned.

The following is a first person account, written by a witness (and participant).

Columbia, Dec 21-- Blake, a Speakeasy regular, shuffled into the bar at approximately 10:30 p.m. to meet City Paper Managing Editor, Todd Morehead, and local freelance writer Harry Iarch. Mr. Iarch’s wife and brother-in-law—a marine who had lost a buddy in Iraq the day before—were also in attendance as well as others.

A live jazz trio in red Santa hats crooned out velvety Christmas classics in the background, while women in black dresses drank expensive looking Martinis and tried to look interested in the cigar smoking cubicle types. A hipster on one of the leather couches laughed loudly, apparently at his own joke. A student stood and made his way past a crackling fire to the men's room. All in all, a warm holiday cheer purveyed throughout the room.

After standing at the end of the bar for ten minutes without being served, Mr. Blake used his cell phone to call George, a bartender on staff that evening whom City Paper jokingly voted “Worst Bartender” in the Worst of Columbia issue. The newspaper staffers watched George pick up his phone at the far end of the bar.

Blake: “Yeah, I’d like a Beam and Ginger.”

George looked around, spotted Blake at the end of the bar, grinned at him and closed his phone. George is actually one of City Paper’s favorite bartenders due to his sense of dark humor and penchant for brutal one-liners. But before George could make it down to the end of the bar, he was intercepted by another bartender named Ryan, who brushed past him and made way for Blake, charging through a cloud of cigar smoke that swirled around in his wake.

“Get out!” he snapped.

“What?”

Ryan rolled up the sleeves on his starched white shirt. “We’re not serving you.”

“Why not?”

Ryan jerked his thumb back towards George. “You wrote bad things about the bar! You voted him the worst bartender in Columbia!”

“Everyone knows that was a joke. Hell, George is proud of it!”

George shrugged and nodded.

Over by the fireplace, the jazz guitarist writhed in his Santa hat and plucked out a cheery solo. The holiday revelers at the end of the bar, however, began to sense impending trouble. Harry Iarch, a bearded hulk in a brown blazer, scowled and took a step closer to the bar. His wife stood from her chair to put a calming hand on his bicep.

“You mean to tell me you’re not going to serve him because of something he wrote?” Iarch was overheard asking Ryan. “You’ve got half a dozen customers here with him who are spending money.”

“He’s got to go,” Ryan said flatly.

Blake, no stranger to being kicked of bars, folded up his $20 and walked out.

“Close my tab,” Iarch said.

Iarch signed his receipt and slung it at Ryan before pouring his drink out on the bar. The bartender stared at the receipt for a long moment, his eyes bulging with rage and apparently repulsed by an extra message scribbled on the receipt.

“F--K YOU!” Ryan bellowed. “OUT!”

Other patrons began to grab their things and leave.

Iarch drew himself up with mock stateliness. “I’m the food editor for The State newspaper and just wait till I— ”

“GET OUT!”

A few moments later, the City Paper staffers were on the sidewalk on Saluda Street. A couple of girls who had just left Speakeasy because of the scene inside approached. The brunette nodded toward the bar entrance.

“What was that bartender’s deal?”

“He didn’t like what we wrote,” Blake said and shrugged.

The girls grinned, shook their heads and walked off.

"I'd heard this town was screwed up," Iarch's brother-in-law stated in bewilderment, "but this is crazy."

"Welcome to South Carolina."

“Well,” Blake said, “let’s head down to Delaney’s. I need a drink.”

Moments later, two Delaney’s bouncers also denied Blake entry. Only one of them did the talking while the other one stood back with his arms folded (possible flexing his neck muscles).

“We heard about what just happened at Speakeasy. They called ahead about you.”

“Ryan asked me to leave and I left,” Blake said.

“Yeah? Then who poured the beer down the length of the bar?”

“It was a whiskey,” Iarch said. “And besides Paul was outside when that happened.”

“Guilt by association,” the bouncer said smugly.

“No,” Blake said, “it’s because of something we wrote. We just wanted to have a nightcap and spend money in your bars, but Ryan’s apparently pissed about us voting George worst bartender in Columbia.”

The bouncer smirked. “Yeah, I heard about that.”

“George thought the award was funny,” Morehead said. “He was gonna wear his ‘I Hate Columbia City Paper’ shirt, pose with the framed award, and send it into the paper.”

“I know,” the bouncer said. He seemed to regret was happening. “Look,” he said, “we were told not to serve you, so we can’t.”

“Let’s go,” Morehead said. “Why do we want to give these f--king people our money anyway? There are plenty of bars down here.”

The group headed to Tavern on the Greene and ordered a round of drinks. Moments later, Morehead clicked his frosty pint glass with Blake’s.

“Well,” he said, “looks like we’ve got the Worst Bartender award already sewn up for next year.”

Sugarplums and Lumps of Coal: The State of the Lowcountry

2007-01-08T11:38:00.000-05:00

Sugarplums and Lumps of Coal

We’re handing them out for 2006

By Will Moredock

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Yea, I know it’s been used before, but it’s a pretty good line and a perfect description of 2006. And so, with apologies to Mr. Dickens, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

First, the best of times. A deal was put together to save Morris Island from development. Bobby Cremins came to the College of Charleston to coach the Cougars basketball team and their future never looked brighter. John Graham Altman III, the racist, homophobic fool who represented House District 119 in the General Assembly for a decade has been retired. It looks like the push for oil drilling off the South Carolina coast has been stopped – at least for now.

And the worst of times. People continued to pour into the Lowcountry, threatening our environment and way of life with their sheer numbers. Some 135,000 new homes are in the pipeline in the tri-county area. The Republican Party maintained its death grip on statewide offices in the November elections. They now have a near monopoly on corruption and mismanagement in Columbia. The killing in Charleston and North Charleston set new records in 2006. This is part of a nationwide trend, but that doesn’t make it feel any better.

There are some groups and individuals who deserve special attention and we would like to recognize them at this time with a sugarplum or a lump of coal for their Christmas stockings. Let’s begin with the lumps of coal.

So without further ado…the first envelope, please. (Drum roll here.)

The Post and Courier, Charleston’s “newspaper of record,” gets the season’s first lump of coal for yet another year of mediocrity and uncompromising mossback conservatism. While the newsroom appears to be making progress, especially in reporting on race and racial issues, the troglodytes in the editorial suite are beyond redemption. They continue to defend George W. Bush in the face of his six years of failed policy and needless war. They had continued to bash former President Bill Clinton in the years since he left office, but with his wife leading the pack for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, she has become their favorite target. And it only gets worse, year after year.

Luxury Cars of Charleston gets special attention here for sparking a racial incident with their crude and highhanded manner. When Jerome Heyward complained that his father had been deceived into overpaying for a Mercedes and had not received proper service on that car, a manager allegedly asked him, “Well, what do you want, a watermelon or a piece of fried chicken?” Protesters have been marching in front of Luxury Cars for the past week.

Chip Boling and his staff at Coastal Carolina Fair get a lump for another racial incident they inspired this past fall. First, they refused to remove a racist T-shirt that a vendor was selling from a booth at the fair. When a woman protested the T-shirt at the entrance to the fair, Chip & Co. had her arrested. Such consistently bad judgment is usually found in the White House.

Wallace Scarborough, the bad boy representative from District 115 gets a lump of coal, along with his girlfriend Catherine Ceips, the bad girl representative from District 124, in Beaufort. While their constituents thought their representatives were working hard for them in Columbia, the two married Republicans were involved in a very public Statehouse affair. The story, which broke in City Paper last summer, nearly cost Scarborough his reelection. Come to think of it, let’s give the voters of districts 115 and 124 a lump, too.

First District Congressman Henry Brown, who loves fossil fuel, gets a nice big lump of coal for his support of legislation that would have allowed oil drilling off our coast. In fact, let’s give Henry a bundle of switches to go with that coal.

Of course, Charleston had its heroes and heroines this past year and two of them were Pat Jobe and Alice Gray Gregory. Jobe and Gregory launched “The Connection,” a Comcast Cable television program for progressives who want to know what’s going on in the Lowcountry and how to get involved.

The voters of House District 119 gets a sugarplum for electing a decent man and progressive Democrat, Leon Stavrinakis, to the Statehouse. Are these the same people who kept electing John Graham Altman?

A big sweet sugarplum to Sullivan’s Island for becoming the first municipality in the state to enact a general smoking ban. And plums to Greenville and Columbia for following suit. So what is Charleston waiting for?

BUM of WEEk tee's now available!

2007-01-02T15:33:00.000-05:00

Bum of the week tee's

"Dat Cooter Cat" is on front with bum logo on back. We will be producing these tee's but for now you can get them at Cafe Press

Make sure you check out the "I smoke Crack" tee with willy's bum card on back.

Familiar stories

2006-11-21T10:38:00.000-05:00

The State newspaper picked up Hutchins Cat Woman story:
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16063493.htm
I swear, I think we could write about a park bench and it would show up everywhere else.

A cute piece submitted by funny man David Martin is at the bottom of this entry.
We've been focused on local content, purchasing content from local professionals like David Axe and Andy Brack.
Local content cost more to produce than syndicates, but we are committed to being your local newspaper.

Our primary syndicates are Ted Rall and Dan Savage. They are staples of real alternative weekly’s across the country, cost a little more than most, but we are fortunate to have been able to secure the two best Alt Weekly features due to our competition being asleep at the wheel.

So keep enjoying the locals and thank Andy Brack, Will Moredock, Corey Hutchins, David Axe, Todd Morehead, Arik Bjorn, Sean Rayford, Deric Kempsell and all the South Carolina local writers that make City Paper happen every other week. City Paper depends on them.

If you are interested in being a contributor, contact todd@columbiacitypaper.com

Thanks Columbia for the continued overwhelming support.

-Paul Blake

WHO VOTED FOR BUSH?

by David Martin

“Research Project for Ms. Anne Thrope’s Grade 9 American History
Class” by Diana “Di” Ogenes

This is my research project for my American History class. It
is a project which required research about history. It was assigned
by Ms. Thorpe and she said it had to be 500 words long! That’s a lot
of words but I counted them all and I think I even have a few extra.
I chose for my research project “Who voted for George W. Bush
and why?” In a democracy like the one that we have, I think it is
important for people to vote. And I thought it would be interesting
to find out why people voted for Mr. Bush.
My dad says that anyone who voted for Bush is an idiot. But I
don’t think that’s fair. After all, almost half of the voters voted
for him and they can’t all be dummies, can they?
For my research project, I chose the personal interview
method. Since Mr. Bush won in our Congressional district, I figured
it would be easy to choose some names from the phone book and ask them
if they voted for Mr. Bush and how come. I’m not sure why, but that
method didn’t seem to work very well.
First I spoke to our mayor, Mr. Blo Harde. Since he’s a
registered Republican, I was pretty sure that he voted for Mr. Bush.
But Mr. Harde said he couldn’t remember who he voted for. He said
that 2004 was a long time ago and he was pretty busy on election day
and he’s just not sure which lever he pulled. In fact, the more he
thought about it, the more he said he was pretty sure he didn’t vote
for Mr. Bush.
Next up, I tried Mr. Manny Baggs who runs the local bank. My
dad told me that Mr. Baggs definitely would have voted for Bush just
to get a tax cut. But when I called Mr. Baggs, he said that he thinks
he voted for John Kerry in 2004. When I asked him about the 2000
election, he said he might have voted for Bush but that was six years
ago and he couldn’t really remember.
I also called Mr. Baggs’s wife, Sadd L. Baggs. She’s the
president of the local Women’s League of Republican Voters so I’m
almost positive that she voted for the President. I asked her if she
voted for Mr. Bush and, not surprisingly, she said yes. But when I
asked if she voted for him in 2000, too, she said: “Oh, you mean
George W. Bush. I meant that I voted for George H. W. Bush in 1988
and in 1992. I don’t think I ever voted for his son.”
I must have called a dozen different people who are registered
Republicans but not one of them said that they voted for our
President. The sports editor of our local paper said he voted for a
Bush recently but it turns out he voted for Reggie Bush for the
Heisman Trophy last year. But after the scandal broke about Reggie
Bush taking money from marketing agents while in college, the editor
called me back and denied even voting for that Bush.
Like I said, I hoped to find out why people voted for George
W. Bush but I haven’t had much luck. On the other hand, I think I may
have discovered something even more interesting. From my research, it
might be possible that nobody voted for Mr. Bush. Isn’t that funny?

Five Points mediation

2006-11-14T23:21:00.000-05:00

The city-imposed mediation this evening with Five Points merchants yielded some positive results. President Dennis Hiltner humbly listened to concerns.

The major issue at hand was of course the parking meters.
One delay at immediate relief is Parking Services Director, John Spade. Instead of stickers for meters he's looking at aluminum signs with a quote of $1,867.25 and a 30 to 45 day turn around. He's obviously delaying getting it done before the holidays with such a ridiculous approach. Why should he care, he parks for free wherever he goes. Spade himself bragged to City Paper about his free parking card at last council meeting, waving his electronic card for meters in our face.

They will finalize a temporary solution tomorrow from what I understand, and the FPA has shown that it is willing to discuss things more so than ever before.
We await changes at FPA with optimism and skepticism. I left with a feeling that we all want what is best for Five Points, and our hope is to see new leadership within the FPA to usher in a new era of inclusion.

Regardless, they will still have to provide the answers to some of our financial questions.

Let the healing begin!

Paul Blake

USC FRAT BOYS MAKE GLORIOUS BENEFIT STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

2006-11-11T16:28:00.000-05:00

They have a great drinking game in Kazakhstan, according to Sacha Cohen Baron's Central Asian alter ego, TV journalist Borat Sagdiyev.

Participants take a small piece of cheese, slip it into their anus and let a small hamster sniff it out.

No one would do believe this, right?

Except, maybe, one of the dumbass frat boys at USC's Chi Psi.

"I'll do it," the frattie told Borat in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. "I don't give a fuck."

But, it seems, the boy gives a fuck now.

In October 2005, producers for the movie Borat persuaded three Chi Psi brothers to participant in a documentary purportedly for movie audiences in Kazakhstan. According to their story, the producers got them drunk, paid them $200 and put them on an RV with Borat to make asses of themselves. (They didn't need much help with latter task.)

Now, one of the frat boys has gone public and the two others are suing for damages.

David Corcoran participated with FHM for an article titled "I Fell for Borat." He told the lad mag: "They paid for us to drink at a bar. Then we were supposed to pick Borat up in an RV as if he was hitchhiking. I got on the RV and saw all these video guys. It seemed like a good set-up for Kazakh TV. Borat told us he beats women and showed us naked pictures of his sister."

But the other two frat boys aren't so good-natured about the high-profile practical joke. Listing themselves as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2, they filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against the Borat's producers on Nov. 9.

Clearly, the litigation had been in the mental works. On Oct. 9, one of the frat boys' friends posted a question on MetaFilter.

"A friend of mine unknowingly agreed to be in the Borat movie," the buddy said. "Of course, Borat made him look like a complete ass. How can I help convince him it's not the end of the world?"

Among the responses:

"He should make a webpage called 'So Sorry, Kazakhstan' complete with pictures of himself giving a heartfelt apology to the Kazakhi people for leading them astray about the American people. If he kitsches it up and plays along with the joke, he becomes part of the joke, not the butt of it."
"Being drunk can make you the world's bitch. You feel invincible, you're actually pathetic."
"This is also totally reminiscent of the Mel Gibson Jew rant… Nobody really says anything they don't mean when they're drunk. Quite the opposite."

Read the entire thread here.

And thanks, Chi Psi. You made benefit glorious state of South Carolina.

--Aidan Carter

FREE FPA!

2006-11-10T09:24:00.000-05:00

The FPA has decided to continue the tradition of hostility to any business in Five Points that asks questions on how hospitality money is spent in the area.

Everything is taken personally, and the organization still doesn’t get it.

They also still haven’t provided the following records request to City Paper. Here’s the request they are dodging:
Pursuant to the state open records law, S.C. Code Ann. sec. 30-4-10 to 30-4-165, Columbia City Paper, LLC ("CCP") is requesting the following information from the Five Points Association ("FPA")

List of all grants and money received from public institutions in years 1995-2006
Staff salaries for the years 1995-2006
Financial statements and budgets for fiscal years 2005 & 2006
All bank statements for years 2005-2006
Ballots for elected positions in 2005 & 2006
Surveys completed for Five Points After Five
Minutes from past 12 board meetings
Salary, commission, expenses and any other compensation paid to Jack Van Loan for years 2005 & 2006
Salary, commission, expenses and any other compensation paid to Skip Anderson for years 2005 & 2006
Detailed recipients of beer sale commissions and recipients of wristband sales commissions

This information will eventually be provided one way or another.
Stay Tuned.

The image above is part of the “FREE GENERICA” campaign that the boys at Riggs Ad Agency came up with. It was an impressive presentation and the ads that they run will certainly do some good for the area.

However it is a shame that the FPA continues to be hostile towards City Paper, a Five Points based business and paying member of the FPA. The boys from the Riggs agency were even a bit defensive about the issue themselves, but I guess deep down they must see the irony of their fantastic campaign not being promoted in locally owned media like the Columbia Star and City Paper (a paying member of the very Association they are trying to promote). And, after all, the "Free Generica" campaign loses some steam when the ad dollars are shipped out of state. But, that's been the tradition of the FPA; they never think of 5 Points businesses first.

To that end, we love the Gamecock and are glad they're included in the campaign, but seeing as USC will be out of session for the majority of the holiday season, it seems odd that the FPA would not include a 5 Points based newspaper like us to take over the advertising load while the Gamecock isn't in print.

Fortunately, the majority of the small businesses are supporting each other.
Sure there are board members like John Green and Jeff Whitt that have over the top defensive reactions to City Paper questioning things, but no one is asking for financial information on their personal businesses. The taxpayers have a right to certain information and so do the 77 Five Points merchants that singed petitions against parking meters.

The boys at Riggs really understand how basic marketing works, and think these news reports and requests somehow benefit City Paper. They are right, doing the right thing and continuing to do reporting is making our papers fly off the racks.

For that, I thank Fat organizations like the FPA misspending taxpayer money.

And I also sincerely thank Riggs for such a great campaign. Lets hope the media buy helps keep some of my fellow Five Points merchants in business.

-- Paul Blake

My War

2006-11-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

My War

By Todd Morehead

My editorial last issue (“Biting the Hand That Never Fed Me”) was primarily written in an attempt to heal a fractured community. However, I also took aim at establishments who cater to the alternative community, yet ban the local newspaper that covers the issues that impact those peoples’ lives. I also made sure to include a couple of particular business owners that I know personally, who subscribe to liberal politics in their private lives, yet who show aggressive lack of support for their alternative newsweekly and instead funnel money to a media conglomerate based in Virginia. Feedback I’ve received on the article—both positive and negative—convinced me to take a few more words to stress that I’m not trying to alienate my friends or polarize the community further. My intention wasn’t to attack these business so much as grab them by the shoulders and try to shake them back to their senses. This issue isn’t about a few ad dollars; it’s about standing up and putting your money where your mouth is. And, as a member of the community that has supported those businesses over the years, I’m simply asking, “Why?” What the hell is going on around here?

An alternative business owner, who I’ve known peripherally for years, confronted me about the article, stating that his decision to support an out of town media corporation instead of the City Paper was due to the fact that he was “just trying to run a business.” Fair enough. But, he didn’t realize how telling that statement was. No, it’s NOT just business. In fact, there’s nothing more dangerous than the “just business” mentality. Sure, advertise with the entertainment paper. But, support your community newsweekly, too –if only in a small, token sort of capacity. What happened to supporting a local economy, supporting the people to which he caters, and supporting his friends?

A few years ago this same business owner tried to coax me into leaving my job to hop on a bus with him and ride up to Washington to protest against Bush (or maybe it was the WTO). What the hell happened to his sense of activism in the few years since? Another one of the business owners mentioned in my commentary is a higher up in the South Carolina Green party. She has been a tireless activist and is a genuinely good person. Yet, she won’t support the newspaper that eschews some of the core views she’s worked so hard to bring to light. These people should leap with joy at the chance to help support a true alternative newspaper in their hometown (not to mention reaching their true demographic).

Yet, it seems that these people are now more worried about their bottom line. Any case, a few of the same points have been echoed from both supporters and detractors alike, so I feel that it’s important to clarify my position.

“So, if I don’t advertise with you, you’re going to attack my business?”

Of course not. That would be absurd. Adrianna’s, for example, has never advertised with this paper, but we’re always quick to stand up for them. I want to help the alternative community, not injure it. Pointing out areas of concern within that community—flagrant disregard of an important media source for instance—is a step toward fixing the problem.

The people who come at me with this argument should re-read the article more closely. For one, I mainly go after the businesses that cater to alternative types, yet don’t allow their customers access to the alternative paper. Second, yeah, I went after a few people that I know personally, who are politically inclined, and who, I feel, aren’t doing their part to support alternative media. For example, I pointed out that their ad dollars spent with Portico Publications, the corporation that bought the Free Times, goes to pay the salary of conservative Boston-based columnist Michael Graham instead of supporting their alternative newspaper (and the local alternative writers who’ve spent their few meager dollars in their establishments). That’s not an attack. It’s a statement of fact.

“You should quit fighting the Free Times.”

Look, I admittedly have a soft spot for the Free Times. Amy Singmaster worked a miracle with that paper. They gave me some of my first publication credits and I still tell people that Dan Cook is one of the best editors I’ve ever worked with. I recommended Dan to a blossoming freelancer just the other day. Eric Ward is a great reporter. And, I’ve always thought very highly of Jim Small. Columbia wouldn’t be where it is today without those people. But, things changed when Portico came to town. The tone and, arguably, the purpose of the Free Times changed. We freelancers were having edgier articles rejected and were receiving emails encouraging us to cover real estate and the automotive industry. And even though I had relegated myself to just writing counter culture book reviews at the time, I still felt that I should bow out and move on.

Since then the City Paper and the Free Times have exchanged blows both in print (usually tongue in cheek) and behind the scenes (more insidious).

For example, I believe that Portico’s close ties with the Five Points Association had a hand in the FPA denying City Paper the opportunity to sponsor a music event in Five Points (even though we’re paying members of the Assn. and are based in Five Points). The FPA’s reason for backpedaling, after they had already agreed to let us sponsor: “we can’t have two print media sources.” Curiously, though, they had two radio stations.

If you were a business owner, wouldn’t you fight that type of thing? Or at least question it?

And what type of journalists would we be if we didn’t question the Columbia good ole boy system? We’re trying to shake up the Five Points Association and the Free Times is thrown into that mix because they’ve been in bed with the FPA for years. Lots of money, some of it from taxpayers, has changed hands.

And the worst part of it is, when we open the Free Times, whose father corporation would love to see us run out of town, lo and behold, there are our personal friends funding them. The money that I spent at my friend’s establishment was being used against my own business that I’ve been tirelessly trying to build.

That is indefensible. Time to ask some questions.

“You [the paper] seem like you’re backed into a corner. All you do is fight.”

Damn right. Somebody has to. I love this city and the people in it. And I consider it my duty to report the truth, so that citizens can gather together if they so choose to fix the problems around here. The fact that even the alternative community is plagued by the good old boy system is frightening. It’s heartbreaking, actually. So yeah, I’ll fight to fix it.

And if I seem a little grumpy lately well... on a personal level, dang it, I miss having places to shop. Let me use the story of another small business as an example:

The Happy Bookseller is a local independent bookstore that’s been in business for over 30 years. A few years ago, two mega chain bookstores purposely flanked them in an attempt to run them out of business. The only thing that’s kept them afloat is an effort by the community to spend their money locally. When Barnes and Noble bought a publisher called Sterling, the Happy Bookseller canceled their contract with that publisher. After all, it would be illogical for the Happy Bookseller to give money to a publisher that would siphon the revenue to the very people who are actively trying to run them out of business.

By that same logic, as an alternative consumer, and as a friend, I can’t support some of these alternative businesses any more. I love ‘em, I sincerely wish them the best, and I encourage you all to please continue to support them, but it’s illogical for me, personally, to give them my money so they can siphon it to Portico media headquarters in Charlottesville. I can’t stomach hearing political indie rock coming through their audio systems, while knowing that they lavish their ad dollars at the feet of an out-of-town entertainment media conglomerate. Call me an idealist.

So, please, instead of getting defensive, simply step up and help out. Help me help you. I truly admire, care about and respect some of the people that I’ve been forced to distance myself from. But, when the history books begin to paint an accurate portrait of arguably the most troubling times in the past half century of American history, I want to be able to tell my grandchildren that in my own little corner of the country I stood up and fought for what was right and decent. That I cared more about people than my bottom line.

It’s time for change in the south and in this town. Period. This type of paper, this type of honest discourse is a start. And if I have to burn some bridges to help jumpstart that change, it’s a price I guess I’ll have to pay, though it pains me to do it.

What if the negative press puts us out of business?

Well, let me bounce that ball back to you: what if your aggressive lack of support for your paper puts us out of business, what some have called “the only real show in town?” Your client base might not take too kindly to that.

But regarding the negative press: I’ll stress until I’m blue in the face that I’m not calling for some type of boycott of these places. Small businesses have a hard enough time as it is. I’m simply suggesting that concerned citizens voice to these places that you’d like them to start supporting their local newspaper. Walk in and ask them what their fucking problem is.

And, sure this may seem overly aggressive, but sometimes alternative journalism is aggressive. Some of you who grew up in South Carolina and who have never left it may never have truly experienced alternative journalism. But, my intention—however aggressive—is to simply start a dialogue. To ask “why?” And maybe if this paper manages to stay in print for another few years, some of these people will come around. I don’t think they’re bad people, they just haven’t considered the big picture, yet.

“Todd, dude, I think there are some people looking to kick your ass for this.”

That, unfortunately, is often a side effect when people try to change things or ask too many questions. I didn’t come up in a shoe-gazer scene, so I’m no stranger to threats and beat downs. Being a punk rock kid 18 years ago in Chattanooga, TN wasn’t a safe proposition either. In this case, they’re just hicks who wear Iggy Pop shirts, I guess. And they can align themselves proudly with the pieces of shit who torched Corey’s house last year.

How can some think that it’s more productive to write hate mail and threaten people than to simply say, “I disagree with you on this, because...”

You know? I’d love to hear some reasons, because I can’t really think of any.

OR “Hey, man... you’re right about some of this. It’s pretty lame that those places ban you.”

OR “Sorry, I didn’t realize how hypocritical I seem as an business owner and leader of the alternative community. Deep down, I’m not hypocritical, I’d just never thought about it like that before. Yeah, I think I’ll help out.”

Let’s drop the egos and the blustering and have an honest discourse here. I’m just reporting facts. Gonna kick my ass for that?

Instead of threatening me—and I’ve tangled with way meaner—simply try to deny or disprove any of the facts I’ve put forth. We’re providing you a voice. Tell us your side. The way I see it, if you ban a newspaper or ignore what should be an integral part of your community, then you’ve got some damn explaining to do.

So, what now?

A lot of the alternative community’s movers and shakers have proven where their true priorities lie, for good or ill, but we’re still in the process of separating the wheat from the chaff.

My commentary, at the very least, has opened a dialogue. Post a comment here and let me know how you feel about it. If you want to help support “the only real show in town” then start asking questions of your community, too. We’re your voice. Send us news tips or story suggestions and letters.

In the very near future City Paper is going to start sponsoring regular benefit shows at New Brookland Tavern. Proceeds will go to benefit various local charities and organizations. Show up and help out.

Habeas Corpus Beheaded

2006-11-09T14:53:00.000-05:00

Habeas Corpus Beheaded

Two months later are we really any safer?

By David Tindall

Yep, George W. Bush and his gang of goons are at it again. Their target this time was no less than the Writ of Habeas Corpus. “Habeas Corpus,” as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, means, “thou shalt have the body.” David Cole of The Nation offers a clearer definition, describing it as, “[A] writ issued requiring that the body of the person restrained of liberty be brought before the judge or the court.” The writ basically allows those accused of a crime to be brought before their accusers and told exactly what they are accused of. This basic right is now gone, kaput, out-the-window, dead-in-the-water, bye-bye, thanks to Bush’s Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Bush signed the innocuous but patriotic-sounding act into law on Oct. 17 of this year. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC responded on his show “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” with a powerful commentary, calling it “the beginning of the end of America.”
The American Civil Liberties Union expressed outrage and called the new law one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history.
ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said on the union’s Web site, that “...with his signature, President Bush enacts a law that is both unconstitutional and un-American. This president will be remembered as the one who undercut the hallmark of habeas in the name of the war on terror. Nothing separates America more from our enemies than our commitment to fairness and the rule of law, but... [t]he president can now - with the approval of Congress - indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions.

Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act.”

Since Bush’s signing of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Amnesty International has urged legislative and executive officials to formulate new legislation to repair the government’s previous disregard for international law and its war paradigm which has gone far beyond being merely a rhetorical or metaphorical.

Scary times we live in. Very scary times.

No Relief for Five Points

2006-11-02T10:47:00.000-05:00

City Council once again failed to take action.

Instead of listening to the merchants who want suspension of all meters through the holidays, they took the recommendations from parking services.

90 minutes free on Saturday is not a compromise.

Wally's Family Values

2006-11-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

Here are the Family Court documents Will Moredock based the Scarborough Affair cover story .
There's seven total affidavits and just for kicks the police report in which wally fires his gun.

-Paul Blake

BREAKING NEWS: NEW FONTS AT FREE TIMES

2006-09-12T03:27:00.000-04:00

BREAKING NEWS: NEW FONTS AT FREE TIMES

Just a week after Dan Cook of Free Times broke the riveting story of Portico Publications’ office move, Cook’s investigative reporting within his own office continues.

Ole’ Danny Boy is relentless.

This week, while reporting on Free Times’ newspaper redesign, he quotes an anonymous source on the grueling process of selecting a new font:

“This one looks too frivolous,” someone would say.

“That one looks too stuffy,” was the verdict on another.

Who is this masked man, this anonymous talker, this “Deep Throat” at Free Times? Heck, Cook’s protection of his inside source is the kind of risky, aggressive journalism you’d expect to see in an alternative newsweekly. But our inside source at Free Times tells us that Cook -- yes, Cook! -- is the one that those new delivery boys refer to as Deep Throat.

As for the redesign, Free Times made significant changes.

The paper moved the classified section to the back of the book like virtually every other newspaper in existence. (That middle-of-the-book classified experiment was friggin’ moronic!)

Cook may have also obtained the first document of his journalistic career: the Columbia City Paper media kit.

Our media kit contains headers that are eerily similar to the new Free Times article headers. Cook’s ability to review the document he obtained didn’t stop there. It’s clear he noticed that CCP carries SuDoKu, as well as our mention of “where classified are supposed to be.” (The answer: not the middle of the book! That’s friggin’ moronic!)

Unfortunately for Cook, making his paper look more like Columbia City Paper doesn’t change the fact that the Free Times cover stories are still sophomoric. Case in point: writing on bathroom stalls. (That’s friggin’ moronic too!)

Besides Cook’s piece on the redesign, the other top story in this week’s issue was about their new music editor. Kevin Foster Langston took a page out of Cook’s book, stepped across the hall, and interviewed his fellow music writer Patrick Wall.

Since Free Times is clearly taking suggestions from CCP, here are a few more:
1. Write an interesting cover story every now and then. Re-running a feature story on Jimmy Carter that appeared in Mother Jones months earlier is well, uh, lame.
2. Stop overcharging your advertisers. They know what you’re doing. We tell them.
3. Find a permanent position for Jim Small. He deserves it. Suggestion: How about Dan Cook’s job?
4. Don’t tell your readers to call the theater for show times for Monetta Drive In and Columbia Grande. You do it. The whole point of having movie times is to provide them to your readers. Idjits.
5. Stop rehashing news from The State newspaper. That newspaper is almost as bad as Free Times.
6. Buy Dan Cook a phone.
7. Get another source besides SCHotline.com.
8. Kill the golf page. That’s friggin’ moronic.
9. Start calling Brett Bursey for quotes every week again. It is embarrassing that you haven’t spoken to him since CCP detailed his past dealings.
10. Enough with the special sections. People are starting to catch on to the endless advertising schemes. And, uh, in case you didn’t notice: No one is falling for Sidelines.

Congrats on the new fonts, though. It’s a start. But, just remember: sprinkling a dog turd with glitter and tying it off with a bow doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a dog turd.

_ Paul Blake

"How do you guys make money?

2006-08-31T02:02:00.000-04:00

On independent journalism and the problems of conglomerated of news

In an era flooded by a tide of corporate interests, independent journalism in the 21st Century is finding itself sparsely retreating to only the highest ground. When the answer to 99 out of 100 questions comes down to one word—money— it should be no surprise that a visit to any new city will mst likely show the prevailing “alternative weekly” to be far from the root word of the phrase. Corporate giants, media companies and chains with the sole purpose of money grubbing and not news gathering are gobbling up weekly newspapers from the left coast to the right, from the largest cities to the smallest towns. The result is watered down “soft” news, special sections, entertainment guides and advertising pullouts. And as the people on the advertising side of the publications line their pockets while the publisher screams “mo’ money / mo’ pages,” the editorial side, the journalists, end up with their backs against the wall of a giant invisible dollar sign, one that’s essentially writing their paychecks. Any self-respecting journalist, however, knows that “Mo’ money” should really mean “Mo’ problems.”
What the pubic need to know are that companies outside journalism now own what we see and read, and the corporate purchasing of news outlets should be regarded as a serious threat. “Independent news will be replaced by self-interested commercialism posing as news,” reads a passage from Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenthal’s 2001 Elements of Journalism. Five years later they couldn’t be more right.
At South Carolina’s own http://www.schotline.com/ (a political Web log) even their “press releases” show a real estate agent’s ad and a banner at the bottom recommending a vote on a partisan issue.
In America, our visceral desire to be free and democratic would have us taking to the streets if our government ever chose to take physical control of the news, yet we seem to have no problem with it if it’s Rupert Murdoch, Disney, AOL/Time Warner or a media group calling the shots from two states away.
“Today, in too much of our journalism, the public good is no longer the bottom line. The bottom line has in itself become the bottom line. Just glance at… formulaic local broadcast news… or stripped-down newspapers owned by chains headquartered in distant cities,” former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein (responsible for breaking the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward) said last year. And he’s right; if journalism should be one thing it should be to provide the public with the information needed to be free and democratic. Not to make money. Alternative weeklies should go one step further; to offer the public information needed to be free and democratic, while offering alternative views that may be fired from somewhere off the political center.
But how is that possible when a free newspaper’s only form of revenue comes from its advertisers, the paper’s entire financial structure architected by quarter, half, and full-page bastions of unbridled and obvious self-interest?
If a prominent Columbia bank runs a full-page $1,000 ad with the daily newspaper, how is that paper able to responsibly report on an investigative story showing how most of the money from that bank is shot up I-77 and rarely ends up in the local economy at all? The short answer is— it just won’t be reported.
Similarly, if a weekly paper receives thousands of dollars in tax money from the City of Columbia, how are they then to report accurately and aggressively on corruption they see in city government? The answer is the same, they won’t— and the truth is they won’t need to—there will always be a cover story on fashion, paid for by their retail advertisers, to fall back on.
A long time ago there used to a rule in publishing that the advertising side and the editorial side should be separated by a physical wall. I’m afraid now that wall has been replaced with an Ethernet cable and a credit card machine and what is generally considered “news” might very well be a paid advertisement unbeknownst to most readers.
A few months ago an employee of a local political consulting firm asked me, “If we give you some money, would you write a story about the firm…or how does that work?” I wasn’t so much offended as I was shocked by the ignorance. It was a serious question. The woman asked it as though it were common practice in the business. I referred her to an account executive, saying the firm might consider a display ad instead. We never heard back. News stories, the firm probably knew, are always better for business than display ads; which leads to another serious question involving local journalism: Is it ethical for a paper to cover events sponsored by their advertisers, or to even cover their advertisers at all?
In April, City Paper ran an exposé on the 3 Rivers Music Festival involving what it saw as questionable financial practices preformed by the festival’s executive director. At the same time, the paper also knew the 3 Rivers Music Festival was known for spending lots of money in local print advertising and had approached them for an ad. Needless to say it would have been quite the conflict of interest for City Paper to accept ad money from them if they were reporting the money was questionable to begin with. On the other hand, as then-executive Virginia Bedford said in an e-mail to City Paper’s publisher about the article, “…is that how you treat everyone who refuses to advertise with you?” implying that a newspaper’s editorial, journalistic side should have cozy relationships with those who advertise with the paper and editorially “attack” those who do not. Another weekly paper in Columbia had a different take on the situation. They took the 3 Rivers ad money, hyped the festival as their front-page cover story, and then, after it was over, questioned the financial tactics of the event while praising the executive director but still alluding to possible misgivings by the organization (as if they had insider information they weren’t willing to share), probably, one: because City Paper already did, and two: so they could both save face at the end of their financial relationship. The whole time though, that ad money from two weeks ago was used to pay for the ink that printed it. A publication should be very careful in ethically covering entities giving them money, lest the public get a sense of who really creates the “news.”

- Corey Hutchins

Come to Jesus

2006-06-11T16:29:00.000-04:00

Pray For Them!

Not one elected city official made the public forum about the CMRTA bus crisis on Saturday morning. The auditorium in the basement of Richland County Public library was packed with many people standing in the back of the room.

Where was Coble?
Where was Devine?
Where was Cromartie?
Where was Sinclair?
Where was Davis?

Where was Sanford for that matter?

These politicians have no problem helping big developers, but when it comes to the middle and lower class, they just don’t give a shit.

That was the message sent Saturday.
One councilmember could have represented the City, but the lack of attendance was both deliberate and appalling.

The entire auditorium resulted to praying for City Council and the Bus system. Listen to it here. They need it. After speaking to Jesus, go ahead and call Mayor Coble direct 803-545-3075
City Manager Austin 803-545-3050
Rickenmann 803-799-9477
Cromartie 803-545-3067
Davis 803-545-3066
Devine 803-545-3076

Playing Ketchup

2006-05-30T06:56:00.000-04:00

We decided to bring back our blog, as it’s received a good number of page views lately. Besides, with the sad state of news media in this little state capital, we needed a place to vent.

This week, Free Times gave us the perfect symbol for our hostility: A bottle of ketchup on the cover.

Free Times, as usual, was playing a game of catch-up in Columbia's news cycle. This time, the stalwart journalists at Columbia's Virginia-owned weekly were working hard to cover their derriere in the aftermath of the Three Rivers fiasco.

As you may recall -- if you're, ahem, one of the few dozen people who still pick up Free Times -- the newspaper promoted Three Rivers on its cover, included a special pull-out map of the festival (how very nice!), and had no qualms about taking enough Three Rivers advertising money to print half-page ads in the weeks leading up to the music festival (how very, very nice!).

But -- wait, wait! -- as we Columbia City Paper informed you, Three Rivers was a financial mess run by a political crony who viewed public records requests with the same disdain as a dental appointment.

So after Free Times pimped out Three Rivers for endless weeks and then realized -- oops! -- Three Rivers was closing shop, partially due to Columbia City Paper's reporting on the festival's financial problems, Free Times Editor Dan Cook backtracked like a john nabbed by cops after a slipping a $20 bill to a lady of the night. He said his paper was asking "tough questions" about the booking of bands and ultimate demise of Three Rivers.

C’mon, Danny Boy, do you think anyone believes that Free Times -- which accepted thousands of dollars worth of Three Rivers ad money (read: taxpayers' hard-earned cash) -- reported aggressively and honestly about the music festival's publicly funded money pit?

Prior to Three Rivers' announcement that it was closing for good, Columbia City Paper was the only news organization that:

- Exposed Executive Director Virginia Bedford's political ties to the City Council.

- Asked Bedford what happened to a $38,000 check (again, taxpayer money!) that was made out to "petty cash."

- Called for an audit of Three Rivers.

- Printed vendors' complaints.

- Acquired and examined the festival's financial records

- Reported the amounts paid to bands and the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars paid in cash (which encourages tax evasion).

Danny Boy Cook of the Free Times only wrote about these problems after it was exposed by Columbia City Paper and followed by reports in The State newspaper. Heck, by the time Cook asked "tough questions," every barfly in Columbia knew Three Rivers was a mess.

Then Danny Boy then topped his recent editorial about his paper's "tough questions" with this line:

"No one doubts the endless dedication and commitment of longtime festival organizer Virginia Bedford."

Say what, Danny Boy? City Paper doubts that "endless dedication and commitment."

City Paper exposed that the reason Bedford continued to get tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money despite running a festival that LOST MONEY YEAR AFTER YEAR was her political influence.

You know, cronyism, Danny Boy.

In March, City Paper reported: "In an e-mail obtained by Columbia City Paper, Bedford wrote to a City Council candidate, 'I was very involved in Tameika [Devine's] campaign in 2001-2002… We were able to raise around $30,000 before the election and the rest was raised after she won."

While poring through the financial records, City Paper discovered that Bedford's unprofessional e-mail tirades -- which she sent to, among other people, vendors and journalists -- contributed to the festival's financial ruin.

Styx wasn't the problem.

Bedford was the problem.

Take some advice from City Paper, Danny Boy: If you're going to write about the news, try to do some reporting first.

Step 1: Pick up the phone.

Step 2: Request documents.

Step 3: Get out of the office.

Step 4: Ask those "tough questions.

- Paul Blake

TED RALL & THE BOONDOCKS

2005-11-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

In order to still have a reason to pick us up, these features will be in the print version only.
So pick up one at :
Manifest
CJ's
Moe's
Tias
Miyo's
Adams Bookstore
SC bookstore
Outside Starbucks in 5 points
saloon
delanys
speak easy
village idiot
5pts diner
bar none
sharkeys
outside grouchos
wild hare
Sammi's Deli
Pita Pit
Tavern on Green
Andys Deli
Mr. Friendlys
Pizza Man
Publik House
outside club ra
outside california chicken on Gervais
cafe strudel
state street pub
New Brookland Tavern
Red Tub
The Whig
Capital Newsstand
Outside Rio Nightlife
Corner of Laurel & Main
Earthfare
Anywhere on campus and our 200 other Columbia Metro locations

2005-11-22T17:35:00.000-05:00

USC's Garnet & Black magazine has a feature on Columbia City Paper. They asked our editor how he started his own newspaper. We are grateful for more free publicity as we continue to grow and expand. Thanks G&B!

2005-11-10T19:57:00.000-05:00

Dear Guy that phoned in yelling and threatening today,
Sorry about the Deer and the Starbucks thing. In just a few years your 12 year old girl will be dating, and the problems you'll have will make this little deer miss-understanding seem meaningless. Heck, maybe the figurines will help get conversations started with many parents and we were glad to have provided this public service.
I recommend this site http://www.talkingwithkids.org/sex.html
It states, "Studies show that kids who feel they can talk with their parents about sex -- because their moms and dads speak openly and listen carefully to them -- are less likely to engage in high-risk behavior as teens than kids who do not feel they can talk with their parents about the subject."
So explore your feelings about sex. If you are very uncomfortable with the subject, read some books (see Readings for Parents) and discuss your feelings with a trusted friend, relative, physician, or clergy member. The more you examine the subject, the more confident you'll feel discussing it."

Note that it doesn't mention talking to your psychologist, although judging from your anger problems, we at CCP highly recommend it.
It also suggests that maybe you should have started this conversation a year ago,
"If your child is a pre-teen, you need to include some message about the responsibilities and consequences of sexual activity. Conversations with 11 and 12-year-olds, for example, should include talks about unwanted pregnancy and how they can protect themselves."

Any case, we do feel bad, but she will see much worse at the local museum or zoo. And if you really want to protect her, I recommend spending time with her at either place or any one of the fine attractions Columbia has to offer.

All the best,
Columbia City Paper

2005-11-10T15:11:00.000-05:00

Here's the Starr settlement documents if you are interested in the case. Here's part two of our FOI request. We are done reporting on this. We are hopeful other local media will see the importance of getting the word out on these secret settlements when USC is a publicly funded University. Today the president got a nice 40K bonus bringing his salary to over half a million.
I am sick of where our taxpayer money goes. This is bull shit.

2005-11-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the law students that phoned in yesterday. I like to think we "rock" as well, and we look forward to you defending us in the future.
We will have a list of locations where you can pick the paper up online soon.
I've let most publishers in town know that we have rights to all Snitch racks and those unlabeled will be done so this week.
Anyone caught messing with our racks will be reported to Columbia City Police department.
If you think we are joking, just ask one publisher when you check out Police Report #05-34294.
So if you are that fat kid in Gambrell Hall, we have big plans for you. Since the first copy is free and each additional is a dollar, we were waiting for you to hit the 1,000 mark in papers stolen. This way it’s considered Grand Larceny, which will make it much more serious. Thanks for playing with Columbia City Paper!

2005-10-23T20:08:00.000-04:00

Get an advanced copy of Tight Ends and download the pdf at http://www.columbiacitypaper.com

2005-10-23T13:55:00.000-04:00

City Paper hs obtained the "silent" USC settlement amounts through a S.C. Freedom of Information Act request, in regards to the sexual discrimination lawsuit involving current department head and chair Harvey Starr. It's amazing that this was kept out of the papers until now. The amount of tax payer money spent and details in the next City Paper will blow your mind. It will be a fun issue too, as we will also be giving "Worst of" awards.

Thanks for reading,
Paul