I want you to close your eyes and picture in your mind the soldier at Valley Forge, as he holds his musket in his bloody hands.
 
He stands barefoot in the snow, starved from lack of food, wounded from months of battle and emotionally scarred from the eternity away from his family surrounded by nothing but death and carnage of war.
 
He stands though, with fire in his eyes and victory on his breath. He looks at us now in anger and disgust and tells us this…
 
I gave you a birthright of freedom born in the Constitution and now your children graduate too illiterate to read it.
 
I fought in the snow barefoot to give you the freedom to vote and you stay at home because it rains.
 
I left my family destitute to give you the freedom of speech and you remain silent on critical issues, because it might be politically incorrect.
 
I orphaned my children to give you a government to serve you and it has stolen democracy from the people.
 
It’s the soldier, not the reporter who gives you the freedom of the press.
 
It’s the soldier, not the poet who gives you the freedom of speech.
 
It’s the soldier, not the campus organizer who allows you to demonstrate.
 
It’s the soldier, who salutes the flag, serves the flag, whose coffin is draped with the flag that allows the protester to burn the flag!
                       
Thanks to the soldiers who paid the ultimate price for our freedom of speech, even the blogsphere!

On Thursday (05.22.08) the Senate voted again to put H. 4400 on special order and interrupted debate for immediate consideration on Tuesday (05.27.08)
                       
We worked on several bills this week, may good worthy projects, but the 1,000 pound orangutan in the middle of the chamber is immigration.
                              
Are there any “poison pills” or loopholes? So far, I haven’t been able to find anything worthy of voting against it. I’ve always voted against weak bills on immigration. We can’t take this issue incrementally, this is the last chomp at the apple. There is a very tender agreement with Senate & House Leadership with this amendment. Governor Sanford hasn’t weighed in publicly, but my sources say the office is cautiously optimistic.
                                     
I’ve been scrutinizing over the proposed amendment this weekend and am confident this is the best proposal we’ve seen to date. This bill mandates the strengths of the Arizona legislation. Why not pass the exact AZ law? The Arizona law’s main bludgeon is the revocation of the Arizona’s state license. SC does not have a state business license, so we created an “implied” license to hire. This virtual license is nothing any business needs to apply for or pay for, but this “license to hire” will be stripped if the employer fails to comply with the required verifications. AZ has no fines, yet the effects of the AZ legislation has caused voluntary deportation by illegals.
                      
Here’s some highlights. Here is a link to the complete summary compiled by Senate Staff. Since the actual amendment hasn’t been read across the desk, I’m going to refrain from publishing it as some “tweaking” may occur over the weekend, but stay tuned. When the final draft is introduced, I’ll let ya’ll know.
                   
-The proposed bill:
-creates a 24-hour website and hotline to receive and record information pertaining to violations of any laws or regulations by any non-US citizen.
-creates implementation phases depending on number of employees and whether or not the employer has government contracts. Verification will be required of all employers by July 1, 2010.
-creates a welfare verification process. E-verify cannot be used for any other purpose except for employment verification, so we have to use a different verification for benefits.
-creates a felony for harboring or transporting illegal aliens
-creates a need for registration of immigration assistance services. Don’t understand why businesses assisting employers need to register with LLR, but maybe helps enforcement.
-Makes it a felony to knowingly and willfully make, aid and abet in making, or solicit to make a false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation in any document in an immigration related matter while providing immigration assistance services.  A person convicted of a violation could receive a sentence of confinement of up to five years and a fine. 
-Expands jurisdiction of State Grand Jury to include immigration fraud
-Prohibits illegals from buying, selling, possessing, or transporting firearms. Sorry, but the Constitutional right to bear arms doesn’t apply to foreigners.
-Prohibits sanctuary and state preemption (sanctuary cities) 
                     
Penalties:
1st offense – suspend all business licenses INCLUDING the employer’s SC employment license, prohibiting it from doing business or hiring new employees for 10-30 days, terminate all illegal alien employees, and pay reinstatement fee up to $1000 (to cover costs of investigation and enforcement); 
2nd offense – suspend all business licenses INCLUDING the employer’s SC employment license, prohibiting him from doing business or hiring new employees for 30-60 days, terminate all illegal alien employees, and pay reinstatement fee up to $1000 (to cover costs of investigation and enforcement); 
3rd and subsequent offenses – revocation of business and employment license (5 year minimum), can only be reinstated after 5 years if employer terminates all illegal alien employees, goes on probation for 3 years and submits compliance reports, and pays reinstatement fee of up to $1000 (to cover costs of investigation and enforcement);

In the Senate Agriculture Committee Wednesday morning (05.21.08) we amended H. 4337 to call for exemptions of stormwater, sediment, or erosion control program for agricultural lands, forest lands, undeveloped lands, and any place, structure, or building or worship.

A few months back, I paid the water bill for our church. The new storm water run-off fee of $65.33 is more than 1/2 the total water bill.

You  may be unaware, but I’m the treasurer for Concord Community Church, a non-denonminational Bible Fellowshop.  I know what you’re thinking, what kind of Church allows a politician to steward over the checkbook, but I’m the guy for now.

 Spending may be capped in the spending caps constitutional amendment. I offered two amendments to the spending caps bill today.

1-This amendment was a simple automatic tax refund to the overcharged taxpayer if the following criteria are met: “When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection and when the big spenders have grown government to match the 10 year projections (roughly 4.5%), then the taxpayer will get an automatic refund. I’m sure you guessed it, my amendment was tabled.

2- When the balance in the Budget Stabilization Fund is greater than 15% of the prior year’s actual general fund revenue collection and when the big spenders have grown government to match the 10 year projections (roughly 4.5%), then the overage may be used in the following ways: 1-rax refund (don’t hold your breath 2-debt retirement (blue face yet?) or 3-capital improvements or a combination of 2 or 3 of these options. Unless the SC Legislature has a Goldwater moment, you and I know the money will be spent in a slush orgy with the capital projects. But, we’ll have one more item to hold up as a justification for tax cuts. This amendment passed, and the bill got 2^nd reading, but fell short of the necessary 2/3 vote to amendment the constitution.

The Budget Stabilization Fund may be OK. It keeps us from the current roller coaster ride of up and down years. One piece of the puzzle does give me pause. The big revenue years are the only time we can ever get any form of tax relief passed. If we get into this steady growth, we may have an even harder time to persuade the Legislature to cut taxes. Of course ya’ll know, selling tax cuts in Columbia is like selling Antabuse on skid row. No one’s interested.

Keep in mind that the cap is a ceiling, not a floor. Even with this amendment the Legislature could have a Goldwater moment and cut taxes and cut government down to essential constitutional functions.

Interestingly, this week the Senate has made efforts to pass meaningful immigration reform for the 4^th time and what-do-you-know, we have foreign workers on the back steps of the Statehouse. Unable to speak English, we don’t know if these workers are legal. If they are, I’m all for their privilege to live here, work here, and participate in our wonderful quality of life. But at this time, we don’t know. Palmetto Scoop and Fits News have posed this  question so I’ve asked the Clerk’s office to research this matter. This contract is the obligation of the Budget & Control Board (you know the one we’re trying to abolish). The contractor has confirmed that all of his employees confirm to the law. I’d like to know what documents are being used to verify the legality. Are these workers United States Citizens, verified with e-verify, or verified with  an i9. Ya’ll remember an i9 is a worthless document full of loopholes.
                  
I don’t know if we can force the contractor to tell us, but we’ll continue to pursue and get you some answers. I’ve put in a request to find out the documentation of these workers. I’ll let ya’ll know our findings.