For every elected official, there’s a learning curve to get by. Bill Clinton lost the Congress before he recovered. George W. Bush was a different kettle of fish because of the five-year free pass given to him by the American public because of 9/11. In Virginia, governors have little room for error, being term-limited to one four-year period.

Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell, who campaigned on jobs and the economy, led off his term by stripping statewide legal anti-discrimination protection for gays and lesbians, something that was signed into law at the beginning of former Gov. Tim Kaine’s term. That was bad enough. Then, raging wingnut Atty. Gen. Ken Cuccinelli issued the opinion that homosexuals cannot be protected under state law as it applies to state universities. Really.

Keep in mind that these people were elected statewide in the Old Dominion, known as “the birthplace of presidents,” some of the best public and private universities in the nation and home to some of the country’s top businesses. It would seem to us that Virginia voters went to the polls in favor of jobs and turning around the commonwealth’s economy, not culture war.

Virginia Commonwealth University, where we started our experience in higher learning, had about 1,000 people turn up, spread out between four different forums, to express their complaints and grievances regarding the insanity coming out of the Virginia attorney general’s office.

In sometimes-emotional comments to VCU Provost Stephen D. Gottfredson, students and their teachers described Cuccinelli’s action as a threat that reaches beyond sexual orientation.
“This hits me personally and professionally,“ said Carol Schall, an assistant professor in the School of Education.

The opinion affects more than the gay and lesbian community, she said. “It is about the university’s right to establish its own scholarly community and its right to maintain academic freedom.“

Describing the opinion as “mean-spirited,“ Gottfredson said it was just Cuccinelli’s interpretation of the law. “I personally beg to disagree,“ he said.

Diversity and inclusion are “embedded in the very fiber of VCU,“ he said, and those policies will stand unless the board of visitors acts to change them.

“If VCU did not protect sexual orientation, I wouldn’t have come here,“ said Luke Schlimme, a graduate student in social work who pointed out that diversity protection is required in the code of ethics for his field.

It’s taken a little while, but at least McDonnell realized he fucked up, signing an executive order that bans workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. This is good news, but it’s still a little too specific. For instance, let’s say you don’t get served at a business because, for whatever reason, the person providing the service knows that you’re gay. You would have no legal recourse.

Think it’s not a big deal? Columbia’s own Maurice Bessinger took a case against him to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to stop the government from forcing him to serve black customers the same as he served whites. Fortunately for justice, Birmingham barbecue joint Ollie’s had already been taken to court by the Federal government and required to serve everyone, regardless of color (the Court used the interstate commerce clause to justify Federal involvement).

Regardless, Virginia residents are stepping up and showing that they will not tolerate officials who feel it’s OK to give free reign to discrimination against an entire group of people. McDonnell may get out of this without a problem, and have a chance to challenge U.S. Sen. Mark Warner in 2014. Cuccinelli, however, has motivated people who didn’t like him already to work to make sure he doesn’t have a good election in 2013.

UPDATE: McDonnell continues to backpedal after being totally owned on the issue.

The controversy — it ignited protests online and on campuses as well as in the General Assembly — threatened to tarnish McDonnell’s fledgling administration; made the state an object of ridicule on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”; and could complicate efforts to lure defense giant Northrop Grumman, which has gay-friendly employee policies, to relocate to Fairfax County from Los Angeles.

“It has caused too much fear and too much uncertainty in the business community and the higher-education establishment and among young people in the commonwealth — and I simply won’t stand for that,” McDonnell told reporters.

Yes, sir. Conducting a gigantic fuck-up that extends to businesses and higher education just might be a mistake when you’re trying to create a job-friendly environment.

Sure, some people may say things that will make you say, “What the fuck?” It’s pretty much a regular occurrence in South Carolina. So many times, we pick up the paper, or read an online news story and say, “Cripes. Only in South Carolina.” Add this latest event to that long-running list. According to the Aiken Standard, the Ku Klux Klan will be marching in Aiken County on the first weekend of April.

Per the story, on April 3 or 4, the “Church of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the leading institution for the investigation of dangerous hate groups, this version of the KKK was formed in 1960, and is now based out of South Bend, Ind. (like you needed another reason to dislike Notre Dame). We would make jokes about these guys, because they’re simply pathetic. Unfortunately, and why these jokers need to be paid attention to, they’re also dangerous.

Despite its sometimes comical stumbles, the National Knights remains a potentially violent and dangerous group. This fact became obvious on Jan. 1, 2003, when Glen Gautier, a member of the National Knights, confessed to authorities his role in the brutal murder of another Klan member. By his own account, Gautier, who was 50 at the time, had carried out the killing with three other members of two separate but allied Klan chapters, or “klaverns,” that roamed the backwoods of semi-rural central North Carolina in 2001, stealing guns, making bombs, plotting murders, and carrying out at least one. His confession triggered parallel state murder and federal gunrunning cases, which have since dragged on for years. In the end, two members of the National Knights pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges in connection with a plot to blow up the Johnston County, N.C., courthouse and kill Sheriff Steve Bizzell, and were sentenced to a year in federal prison after cooperating with authorities. Two months later, in December, a judge found Klan boss and alleged ringleader Charles Barefoot incompetent to stand trial for orchestrating the murder of a fellow Klansman suspected of informing to police.

The AS says that law enforcement, as of press time, was not aware of the upcoming gathering.

Sheriff Michael Hunt said his office would certainly have increased security for the event; however, he was only made aware of the event after a call from the Aiken Standard. He said he would need more information to comment further.

Aiken County does not require permits for groups to hold parades or marches; however, certain guidelines must be adhered to when using county roads.

The exact location of the march is not known; the last march in that area came down S.C. Highway 421.

We were most aware of Tre Kelley when we were covering him while he was the freshman phenom from DC leading the Carolina men’s basketball team to one of its best seasons in recent years. He was a part of the back-to-back NIT champion teams, and was signed by a Croatian team out of college.

After that, Kelley made his way to a short stint in the NBA. And now, surprise, he’s showing up former New York Knick Stephon Marbury in China.

Marbury was outplayed by his counterpart, Tre Kelley, who finished with 34 points on 12-for-19 shooting. On an identical play with less than 30 seconds to go, Kelley would use Simmons’s screen to drive past Marbury for a layup that put Dongguan ahead 100-99. After his team’s loss, Marbury wrote on his Chinese Twitter-like site: “im sorry about the game last night. i wish we would have won for you guys. i will get better every game, i promise.”

Hey, it’s much better than hearing about Ro Howell beating up some soccer player in Italy.

Few times are worse for everything going pear-shaped on our machine than in the middle of a legislative session week just after Carolina beat its first-ever No. 1 team in men’s basketball. So, needless to say, it pretty well sucked when about a full third of the keyboard went to hell following an unfortunate encounter with a cup of water. But, instead of going dark for weeks while some local nabobs take their sweet time to fix the thing, we were lucky enough to procure a relatively new Mac keyboard and plugged that bastard into the USB port.

Now it’s on to going through three and a half hours of action from this week’s session and getting back in the swing of things. Good times.

Some of the original tea partiers wore Native American get-ups as they tossed perfectly good, but overtaxed, tea leaves into the harbor. So, there’s precedent for crazy. We’ve never been particularly down with the new crew, with one of the reasons being that no one who started this mess thought far enough ahead that they would be called teabaggers. The movement also has a tendency to be extreme, and bring out the nuttiest of nut cases. For a lot of people not living along a dirt road in Lexington County, extremism is very off-putting. So is crazy (for the lefties, we’ll be using Code Pink as a similar iteration).

It is particularly galling that this yelling and screaming about the Constitution, &c., wasn’t coming from that side during the Bush administration, when every one of the first 10 Amendments seemed to be getting violated, with the exception of the Second. Getting in a lather because some people with moderate, left-of-center views were voted — key therm, there — into power is as insane as what their lefty equivalents were doing while Bush was president and the Republicans controlled Congress. The country will not fall apart because Democrats are currently — another key term — running things in DC. So, lighten up, Francis.

As has to be said again, we have elections for a reason. If you don’t like your legislator, then call up your pals, cobble together some cash and run. If you can’t, find someone who will and then help them. If your message works, your person will be elected. If not, too bad. That’s how elections go. Don’t like how the major political party of your choice is working? Then get involved, get your pals involved and join local groups. Become party officers. Move on up. Change the party policy. Both Democratic and Republican parties have changed a lot in the past 50 years because of just that.

But you have to especially have a bee in your bonnet if you’re going to stand in the cold in January to listen to political speechifying, which is what a number of people did today at the “Freedom Rally.” OK, now, we have to know — what was the over/under on the “secret Muslim” signs? Because Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom got his candid camera moment.

Not looking good. It’s no “half-breed muslin,” but it’ll do in a pinch.

If you believe the effluent regularly produced by Will Folks‘ bile duct, you would think that the S.C. Policy Council is doing something new and inventive. After all, they hired Eric Ward from the Free Times and Rick Brundrett of The State. We suppose these guys don’t mind trading in their ethics for an organization that laughingly calls itself “non-partisan.” OK, maybe just “Sanfordite Republican,” and not non-ideological. And the organization will lose a hell of a lot of influence when Gov. Mark Sanford rides off into the sunset, if not already.

You see, the Policy Council’s shill at FITSNews is making a big deal out of some new Web site that the SCPC is starting up.

In what could become some heady competition for Palmetto State media outlets (including FITS), the S.C. Policy Council is on the verge of launching a new “citizen reporter” website – perhaps as soon as next week.

Reportedly dubbed The Nerve (or something to do with nerves), the top secret project will provide original content from Policy Council writers as well as contributing writers from all corners of the state, sources tell FITS.

What this clown doesn’t tell you, and what he knows, is that the plan to hire formerly legitimate reporters and start such operations has been in effect since at least 2007, if not before. And it’s not just South Carolina. Every member of the State Policy Network, which is tied at the hip with robber baron Howard Rich, is doing exactly the same thing. It’s a national effort. Because some reporters are so broke and scared of losing their jobs, they’re willing to do what it takes to pay the mortgage, get insurance and put food on the table.

What sucks for those guys is that they have to make peace with that Faustian bargain, and realize their work — and your labor is one of your most important actions — is actively going against their self-interests. But that’s how the journalism industry crumbles.

The Death Penalty Information Center released a report on executions across the country last year, and South Carolina isn’t exactly going through death row at a fast clip. The Palmetto State put two prisoners to death last year, as did Florida, Tennessee and Oklahoma. Missouri and Indiana both had one on the record, while Texas topped out everybody with 16. That total likely would have been higher if sentencing rules hadn’t been changed in 2005 to allow life without parole.

Overall, fewer people are getting the ultimate penalty and facing the lethal injection table — electric chairs and gas chambers have been largely filtered out.

“There’s a sense that, yes, we support [capital punishment] philosophically,” Richard Dieter, executive director of the DPIC, said to NPR. “But practically, this is a government program that isn’t working.”

The issue seems to be exonerations of prisoners in recent years. Because of that, juries are less likely to pass a death sentence. There’s also the issue of the cost of keeping someone on death row, which has been an issue in the controversy for decades.

Overall, since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted the death penalty in the ’70s, South Carolina ranks ninth among all states in executions. The state’s first execution of the New Year will be on Jan. 8. The man, Quincy Allen, stands convicted of killing two men and the attempted murder of another. He also assisted in the stabbing of a prison guard in December.

UPDATE: Right on time, the S.C. Supreme Court announced a stay of Allen’s sentence.

As we have often said, Southern public school districts have issues because of integration. White people with money didn’t want their taxdollars going to pay for black children to get educated. This is the main reason many Southern school districts aren’t adequately funded. And now wealthy white people are exploiting the situation to further rip public schools.

But, hey, we aren’t the only ones to come to this conclusion.

Unlike the Lee Street Jackass, we don’t consider everything that has connections to the government to be bad. After all, if it wasn’t for the Family and Medical Leave Act, our mom would have been broke and not guaranteed to have her job after a major operation several years ago. The private sector fought that bill the whole way. We’re big fans of corporate America — without the private sector, there aren’t jobs for the rest of us schlubs — but to see the world in simplistic back-and-white is moronic.

So, when Jimbo over there slammed South Carolina traffic and mentioned, “a boatload of government-funded TV commercials,” we rolled our eyes and went on to the next thing. No point in paying attention to a drooling fool. But wait, what was that we saw recently?

South Carolina authorities say 2009 has been the safest year on the state’s roads in 14 years.

Preliminary reports say 881 people died on the state’s roads last year, compared to 921 deaths in 2008. The State of Columbia reports the last year to have fewer than 900 deaths on South Carolina roads was 1995.

Public Safety Department Director Mark Keel credits both the slow economy for reducing the amount people drive as well as heightened enforcement for the lower death toll.

Keel says seat belt use is at 81 percent in South Carolina — an all-time high. He says citations for not wearing a seat belt and for driving under the influence also increased significantly this year.

Yeah, turns out that state highways are the safest they’ve been in years.

Those of us who view election nights like football games, couldn’t get enough of the never-ending 2008 Democratic presidential primary race.

Hack A: “Who’s up tonight?”
Hack B: “Ohio and Texas.”
Hack A: “Awesome.”

And this is how it went for nearly a year. The superdelegates were a whole different kettle of fish, which introduced yet another twist to the procedure. Granted, their presence in the process was a little un-democratic (and in the big D sense, as well), but screw it. Can’t be any more off-putting than letting computers help determine the national championship.

The DNC’s Democratic Change Commission, led by U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, will be forwarding the recommendations to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. One of the rule changes is to make sure superdelegates have to vote along with the majority of their state. Makes sense.

Another change is to shorten the primary season. In other internal fights, this is easier said than done. The DCC suggests making sure no primary or caucus could be held before Feb. 1, and generally try to keep most of the elections to March. Now just watch the state parties complain until nothing happens.