We’re of the opinion that The Garnet Spy is stone-cold batshit fucking crazy. Really, we disagree with people, and absolutely despise others, but it takes a whole different class of person to rise to the level of becoming padded-room eligible.
The man actually thinks his Google and Twitter accounts were hacked because his political beliefs.
So, I post several controversial posts about politics in South Carolina and, coincidentally, almost immediately my Twitter account starts sending out spam Direct Messages and my Gmail account has been disabled.
According to Google, “In most cases, accounts are disabled because of a perceived violation of either the Google Terms of Service or product-specific Terms of Service.“
Nothing I’ve done with Gmail violates any terms of service, but I have gotten some “failure to deliver” messages for emails I never sent to people I don’t know.
Ain’t that the oddest thing?
Good lord. If our crap got hacked, we wouldn’t think it had anything to do with the blog, and we have people actually investigating us (Hi McLovin’!). Dude, YOU’RE NOT THAT IMPORTANT.
Please stop Gov. Mark Sanford. Somebody, anybody. His old toady seems to be getting a lot of leaks from the Governor’s Office. Perhaps his crazy ass can help. Somebody has to, because this has got to end some time.
Wednesday, The Post & Courier reported that the federal government pulled Sanford’s security clearance for the week. The rationale was, “because of questions raised about his ‘lack of candor’ and ‘trustworthiness’ to protect classified information, federal documents show.” So, really — a week? This guy has been mental for years. He’s shown himself untrustworthy for some time, especially since his late-June meltdown.
The Governor is living in a fantasy world. In another P&C story, Sanford pulled out this classic:
Sanford disagreed with the notion that he is governing under a cloud because of the commission’s probe.
“It’s not clouding that guy’s view,” he said, referring to the hotel worker. “Come with me. Walk with me down a street, and you’ll be amazed as I am, given the headlines that these people have read through, at the response of people. So no, I don’t think it’s some cloud hanging over that guy’s head any more than it is mine. I think some people would like to create it as a cloud and keep it over my head every day. That’s not what I’m going to do.”
Asked whether he fears the investigation or the lawmakers’ response could disrupt the upcoming legislation session, “It’s as disruptive as my opponents want to make it.”
Somebody, please, get this man a straitjacket and take him back to the mosquito-filled marshes of the Lowcountry so he cannot bother us anymore.
Welcome to the biopic of Gov. Mark Sanford, “Crazy As I Wanna Be.” Maybe it was Sen. David Thomas‘ remarks yesterday that everybody knows Sanford is continuing his affair with Argentine businesswoman Maria Belén Chapur. Maybe it’s because Sanford gets his rocks off by going after Republicans in the General Assembly. But, Thursday morning he went up to Greenville, across from Thomas’ office no less, to hold yet another weird press conference.
According to The State, “Sanford also said he was being unfairly held to a higher standard than past governors and lawmakers, repeating his claim that, during the past 25 years, 230 business-class tickets were bought on the state’s dime for various lawmakers, staffers and governors.” OK. His office earlier — and this has to be a first — ran smack on a Democrat, Sen. John Land, by saying that Land “presumably” flew comfortably on a trade mission with Gov. Jim Hodges. The insinuation was that Land did it with state money. Not so much.
Land, contacted late Wednesday, said he personally paid for his and his wife’s first-class tickets.
GSA Business talked to Thomas, who was rather upset and called Sanford’s action’s bizarre.
Thomas said he got the final documents of the first phase of the investigation at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Had he known Sanford would be visiting Greenville today, Thomas said he would have told the governor “thanks,” and “we would have had a Coke.”
“It seems very odd to come here to do a press conference in a field,” Thomas said, calling Sanford’s visit “politically motivated” and a “soap opera.”
It should be noted that Sanford alerted the press to his media event after 9 a.m., and the event was scheduled for 11 a.m., basically saying “fuck you” to every Columbia media outlet that doesn’t have a private plane at its beck and call.
But, that’s not all — no sir, that’s not all. The crazy is spreading. Like darkness. So, a gentleman by the name of Brian Macdermant from Hilton Head is in some serious trouble for threatening bodily harm on our illustrious governor. It wouldn’t be the first time something like this has happened, but it usually happens between friends over drinks, not on a call to a Sanford staffer.
The State’s Gina Smith is on the story, reporting in a brief in Thursday’s paper that Gov. Mark Sanford will not be inviting paramour María Belén Chapur to live at the Governor’s Mansion for the duration of his stay as the state’s chief executive.
“I’m moving ahead,” Sanford said when asked by The State if he and Chapur are still in contact.
Sanford said he was not being coy by not giving a yes or no answer but thought it best to concentrate on his legislative agenda instead of rumors.
Sanford also dismissed as untrue an item on a political blog operated by his former press secretary, Will Folks, that the Republican governor was “contemplating” moving Chapur into the Governor’s Mansion.
There have been all sorts of rumors flying through town about what could be happening since S.C. first lady Jenny Sanford moved out and took the children back to Charleston. Right now, it looks like Sanford will have “All By Myself” on endless loop on his iTunes.
Like we’ve said before, when we assume things about the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Sanford administration, they generally prove to be true. Now, we know. News outlets filed FOIA requests for emails and phone records detailing the actions of Gov. Mark Sanford’s staff during the period he disappeared.
According to those records, chief of staff Scott English tried to contact the Governor 15 different times, and was unable to secure a connection. As well, Sanford may have been relatively smart in not using his state-owned cell phone (something that Houston Nutt would’ve have been good to understand).
And, Sanford’s staff had no idea he was leaving, according to emails days before he flew to South America. There was, however, a response to a business wishing to expand its operations here, refusing to meet with executives because the Governor would be doing his thing in Argentina.
It certainly will be interesting how Sanford’s usual song-and-dance before the General Assembly returns goes over this time.
Gov. Mark Sanford has his national security clearance back, after it had been suspended by the federal Department of Homeland Security. You see, it’s usually not OK to give security clearance to a guy that is having an affair with a foreign national. However, after Sanford’s apologies, he’s back in the good graces of the federal government.
According to a story in The Post & Courier, Sanford’s suspension was “made in error.” If so, that’s quite an error. The paper says, “It was unclear late Thursday whether the suspension was related to Sanford’s secret trip last month to Argentina to meet his mistress.”
While Gov. Mark Sanford is considering the future of himself politically and personally, he’ll probably want to play some music, So, we’re trying to help out, giving him an eight-track shout out for music that works for his peculiar situation.
Emmylou Harris and Buck Owens, “Crying Time”
Aimee Mann, “Calling It Quits”
Chris Isaak, “Wicked Game”
Blondie, “Maria”
West Side Story, “Maria”
The Avett Brothers, “Pretty Girl from Chile”
Aimee Mann, “Stupid Thing”
Ben Folds, “Bitches Ain’t Shit”
ACChri
Nobody loves Mark. Well, maybe his Argentine mistress, but that’s about it. Thursday, the conservative imprint of the Penguin Group, Sentinel, released Gov. Mark Sanford from his contract to write a book on his (totally fucking asinine) political philosophy. It’s understandable — at this point, the only things anyone want to know about Sanford is how close he got to crossing “the ultimate line” with the other women, beside his wife, he was involved with.
Sentinel publisher Adrian Zackheim said the termination was by mutual agreement between Sanford and the publishing house. The Governor, after his bizarre interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, hasn’t made a comment to the press.
The book was of the type that politicians typically publish before launching a campaign for the presidency. With the publicity of Sanford’s mismanagement of the state’s business and his romantic issues, it’s unlikely he will be mounting an effort at the nation’s highest office.
Thursday, SLED chief Reggie Lloyd gave Gov. Mark Sanford a pass by saying that the Governor did not break any law in his multiple trips to Argentina and New York City to see his Argentine mistress, Maria Belén Chapur, over the past year.
“In terms of looking at it from a criminal standpoint, was there a criminal violation or misuse of public funds, we have found none, nor has anybody brought us any facts to suggest our findings are questionable or there should be another investigation,” Lloyd said at the 2 p.m. news conference.
The SLED investigation, suggested by Sen. Jake Knotts, was called for by Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster. Joel Sawyer, Sanford’s spokesman, said the Governor had not intention of resigning from office.
Over the past week, The State has been receiving plaudits for its coverage of Gov. Mark Sanford’s meltdown, and conducting the sort of reporting that a publication does when it totally owns a major story. In fact, The State is probably guaranteed a number of SCPA awards already. But, they better not break their arms patting themselves on the back just yet.
The fact is, The State was lazy. For the six months that it had the emails blowing up Sanford’s affair with Argentine businesswoman Maria Belén Chapur, the paper acted like a number of other papers act in South Carolina — gumming the subject. No teeth to be seen. In fact, the emails were sent to the paper via the letters to the editor function, but no one thought to tell then-editorial page editor Brad Warthen about it, who was on a short vacation.
Did The State take advantage of their resources, or McClatchy’s resources, to aggressively pursue the story? No. The emails sat around while the legislative session went on.
If it weren’t for Sen. Jake Knotts keeping a watchful eye on the Governor and alerting the media to the fact Sanford had skedaddled without telling a damn soul where he was, those emails would still be languishing in The State’s offices and Sanford would be gearing up for his book launch. You see, it’s up to the press to hold elected officials accountable and monitor their actions. Papers, especially when given primo inside information, shouldn’t have to wait for a political opponent of an official to make a claim to get on a story.
Right there are the two big breaks — poached emails and an investigation of the Governor’s whereabouts — neither of which were turned up through original sleuthing by the paper. The story, and this is what galls us the most, was fucking given to them on a silver platter.
Perhaps one of the reasons that this pisses us off so much is that our big story about Sanford was gone after in a totally different manner. Before knowing exactly what was going on, we went hell-bent for leather looking for the story, high and low. Contacts and conversations initiated by us led to our possession of the hit list proposal. Then we shopped it to the Free Times, because, frankly, we couldn’t trust The State to do it right.
There was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into investigating and publishing that story. It wasn’t handed to us. It didn’t come gift wrapped. It was a royal goddamn pain-in-the-ass two month ordeal. Investigative journalism isn’t easy. Throwing yourself into a story to that degree makes you want to bang your head against a wall and tear your hair out.
The State had it easy.
