USC DROPS TO 6-4 ON SEASON AFTER 2ND STRAIGHT LOSS

The narrative of yet another late-season collapse is becoming an all-too-likely a possibility for this year’s University of South Carolina football team.

The Gamecocks fell to 6-4 on the season after dropping their second straight game Saturday, losing 33-16 at Arkansas. The Gamecocks have lost three of their last four games.

Things looked promising for USC into the second half, though.

The teams were tied at halftime. On the first play of the third quarter, USC quarterback Stephen Garcia hit his favorite target, wide receiver Alshon Jeffery, for an 80 yard touchdown.

But kicker Spencer Lanning missed the extra point and it was all downhill from there for USC.

Arkansas scored two more touchdowns and tackled Jeffery in the end zone for a safety to go up 26-16. A fourth quarter touchdown solidified the win for Arkansas.

On paper, Garcia had yet another solid day. The sophomore quarterback was 20-34 and threw for 327 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

But when the Gamecocks needed him most, Garcia couldn’t connect.

Jeffery led the receiving corps with five receptions totaling 116 yards including the 80 yard touchdown.

The Gamecock backfield, however, was once again completely ineffective.

USC somehow managed to have a worse day on the ground than the 65 rushing yards they had against Tennessee last week. On Saturday, the Gamecocks recorded a whopping 53 yards rushing.

The Gamecocks, who are bowl eligible, will have to have impressive showings in their final two games of the season to make a decent bowl.

The good news: Both games are at home and there is a bye between them.

The bad news: The games are against No. 1 Florida and arch-rival Clemson, which has won four straight including an upset win of then-10th ranked Miami.

Photo: Getty Images

TALK SHOW HOST TO VISIT WEST ASHLEY NOV. 19

Popular right wing talk show host Glenn Beck will be coming to South Carolina later this month as part of his “Arguing with idiots: How to stop small minds and big government” book tour.

Beck will hold a book signing at the West Ashley Barnes & Noble, 1812 Sam Rittenberg Blvd., at 9 p.m. on Nov. 19.

Of course, Beck was reportedly hospitalized this week with appendicitis, so there’s no word if the tour will go on as scheduled.

According to a news release, “Using his trademark straightforward approach, Beck shows readers how to influence everyone within earshot using actual facts and common sense.”

The release made no mention as to whether or not that trademark approach includes weeping, gas masks, shotguns or adult diapers.

NEW YORK BILL FIRST STEP IN BATTLE AGAINST PRE-EXISTING CONDITION DISQUALIFICATIONS

As the national battle over health care rages in Washington, the rights of patients to receive health insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions is slowly coming to the forefront of the debate.

That’s thanks in large part to one man, 37-year-old Ian Pearl of Florida.

CNN profiled Pearl, who suffers from muscular dystrophy, after he learned that the Guardian insurance company was dropping his coverage because it was too expensive. Pearl said losing his health care coverage would have been a death sentence.

In a Guardian company e-mail, one employee referred to those in Pearl’s high-cost class of policies like as “the few dogs” because their policies each cost more than $1 million per year. Guardian used a legal loophole to drop the entire line of policies, including Pearl.

Shortly after Pearl’s story ran, Guardian restored his policy.

But, more importantly, the New York State Senate introduced “Ian’s Law” — a bill that would close the loophole and make it illegal to terminate an an insurance policy line as a pretext to dropping coverage for individuals who need it most.

“My great hope is that Ian’s Law will end up protecting more people than I will ever know, who will never have to go through any sort of battle again because of this bill,” an elated Pearl said upon hearing of the bill’s introduction.

My great hope, as someone with a disease very similar to — but fortunately much milder to — Pearl, is that we can irradiate the practice of disqualifying or terminating individuals based on pre-existing health conditions.

Listen up lawmakers: Ian’s Law should be everywhere.

SENATOR WILL ONLY SUPPORT CAP-AND-TRADE LEGISLATION IF DEMS COMPROMISE

As much as his detractors are trying to say otherwise, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is not supporting federal cap-and-trade legislation.

Graham made that crystal clear Thursday when he said he would have voted against legislation passed out of Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Environment and Public Works Committee.

“There are simply not the votes to pass this bill through the Senate,” Graham said. “If the Boxer bill were to come to the Senate floor as written, I would vote “no.”

Boxer’s bill would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020. But Republicans, including Graham, said the cost analysis was incomplete.

Graham has said the only way he would support a cap-and-trade bill would be if Democrats made a compromise in the interest of national security.

“Here’s what I need for me to support a climate change bill: I need an offshore drilling provision that would allow us to increase our inventories and generate money to create jobs and create more domestic capacity — not just some drilling, but aggressive drilling,” Graham said last month, noting that the U.S. has sent $440 billion overseas to buy oil from “some of the worst people in the world.”

Yet groups like the “American Energy Alliance (AEA)” are running ads blasting Graham for supporting the legislation.

Why would they so blatantly lie about Graham’s position? Check back for more on that later…

Photo: AP

12 DEAD, 31 WOUNDED AFTER SHOOTING AT FORT HOOD ARMY BASE

Officials say at least 12 people are dead and 31 are wounded after a gunman opened fire on the Fort Hood, Texas Army base Thursday.

A spokesperson for the Army originally said the shooter had been killed, but later said he had been apprehended alive. The gunman, 39-year-old Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was a psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Iraq.

“He was making outlandish comments condemning our foreign policy and claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans,” Col. Terry Lee, a retired officer at the base, told FOX News.

Two other suspects were reportedly apprehended along with Hassan.

Army officials said 11 soldiers and one civilian policeman were among those killed.

President Barack Obama called the shootings “a horrific outburst of violence” and said he had spoken to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of the fallen and those who live and serve at Fort Hood,” Obama said. “These are men and women who have made the selfless and courageous decision to risk and at times give their lives to protect the rest of us on a daily basis. It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil.”

The shootings began around 1:30 p.m. at a personnel and medical processing office — roughly 30 minutes before a group of Army students were scheduled to graduate on the base.

A South Carolina resident stationed at Fort Hood experienced the entire ordeal from inside a building near the shootings. Robin Biro of Columbia wrote on his Facebook page that he was fine but that the high volume of phone calls was jamming up communications into Fort Hood.

“I’m getting a lot of phone calls and we need to keep the phone lines open,” wrote Biro, who is preparing for deployment to Iraq in the spring. “Texting is fine though.”

Individuals in the Waco area can donate blood at the Scott & White Memorial Hospital, which is where the victims are being treated. The hospital needs blood donations and more information can be found by clicking here.

JUSTICES TO STAY OUT OF BATTLE BETWEEN SANFORD, ETHICS COMMISSION, LAWMAKERS

An ethics investigation of Mark Sanford will be made public when it is completed, after the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the governor waived confidentiality in the case.

The decision will give the General Assembly, which is considering impeaching Sanford, the opportunity to review the State Ethics Commission’s findings as they make their decision.

The Ethics Commission is looking into whether or not Sanford misused state aircraft and other resources including campaign money.

The court also denied the House of Representatives request that the Ethics Commission be required to give them a copy of the report. The justices said representatives could subpoena the report’s information if they wanted to use it for impeachment purposes.

The high court’s decision came after two weeks of back-and-forth arguments between Sanford’s lawyers and the Ethics Commission.

Sanford waived his right to confidentiality in the case in August, and the court upheld the Ethics Commission’s claim that such a waiver rendered their report public information.

But Sanford’s attorneys argued that the Ethics Commission and lawmakers looking to obtain the report failed to prove he waived full confidentiality.

There is no word on how soon the Ethics Commission investigation will be complete nor how soon after that the information could be made public. The court left much of that up to the commission’s discretion.

27% OF VOTERS ON LEFT LIKE GOP CONGRESSMAN IN PRIMARY

A poll of hundreds of Democrats in South Carolina showed a clear Republican winner in Tuesday night’s gubernatorial debate: Congressman Gresham Barrett.

Following the debate, the South Carolina New Democrats asked 602 left-leaning voters who they would cast their ballot for if next year’s election were held today.

There were no surprises among the five Democratic candidates, as 34 percent of voters chose primary frontrunner State Sen. Vincent Sheheen.

But when asked which of the five Republicans running for governor was most likely to get their vote, 27 percent of the Democrats chose Barrett.

Those polled didn’t say why they liked Barrett; the New Democrat’s website only said, “while the results are not scientific, they are generally indicative of the attitudes of the participants.”

But Barrett’s support of federal stimulus legislation and vote in favor of last year’s massive bank bailout could have something to do with the reason Democrats like him.

State School Superintendent Jim Rex came in second to Sheheen in the Democrat column, with lawyer Mullins McLeod in third, lobbyist Dwight Drake in fourth, and State Sen. Robert Ford a distant fifth.

For Republicans, Attorney General Henry McMaster finished second, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer was third, State Rep. Nikki Haley was fourth and State Sen. Larry Grooms was fifth.

SEATTLE CARTOONISTS RESPONDS TO SCOOP SKETCH

The Palmetto Scoop’s award-winning cartoonist Mike Beckom made headlines Wednesday with his response to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer cartoon that played on regional stereotypes to attack South Carolina.

David Horsey, an editorial cartoonist for the Post-Intelligencer, published a cartoon Monday that asked, “How many non-union South Carolinian workers does it take to attach a wing to a Boeing airplane?” Horsey’s answer: “Five… and a dog.”

In the cartoon, the five workers are shown struggling to duct tape the wing together while a Confederate battle flag and a noose hang overhead. [VIEW THE CARTOON HERE]

The cartoon was in reference to Boeing’s decision to locate a new 787 Dreamliner facility in North Charleston rather than expand its Everett, Wash. plant — largely due to the fact that South Carolina offered financial incentives and an open shop.

Beckom returned fire.

In his cartoon, Beckom featured a lawnmower repair man saying, “Yep, I got her purrin’ like a kitten. Just hadda take out them whiney, unionized, know-it-all Yankees.” A picture of a Boeing jet was featured in the background. [VIEW THE CARTOON HERE]

The battle between Beckom and Horsey was featured on television stations across South Carolina. Fox Carolina in Greenville spoke with Horsey.

“The good workers of South Carolina I’m sure will do a good job, they’ll just be doing it for a lot less money than the guys in Seattle are getting paid to do the same thing,” Horsey said.

Horsey did apologize for the noose in the cartoon, saying it may have been “over the top.”

SCPC SAYS PUBLIC PAYING $3 MILLION ON 90 LOBBYISTS

South Carolina taxpayers are spending more than $3 million on lobbyists, according to a board member of the South Carolina Policy Council.

Deedee Vaughters penned a piece in the Aiken Standard this week claiming that, of 382 lobbyists that work at the Statehouse, 90 are paid directly by taxpayers.

What exactly does this mean? This means that taxpayer dollars are spent in the practice of lobbying for more taxpayer dollars on an agenda which the taxpayer may not agree with and did not vote for.

To make this a little simpler, your tax dollars are spent to pay the salary, benefits, and expense accounts for individuals whose goal is take more of your tax dollars for their organizations and agencies. Many of these lobbyists are paid six figure incomes; one as much as $221,500. Doesn’t this sound like a conflict of interest?

The budgeting process provides state agencies and organizations the opportunity to explain and justify their requests and budgetary needs. Why then does the taxpayer need to provide the funding for a lobbyist to push for additional dollars for these organizations? [Deedee Vaughters]

Vaughters said the research was conducted by Megan Kirby with the SCPC.

Officials at the Statehouse did not dispute the taxpayer-funded lobbysits, but said the SCPC’s numbers seemed a little high.

STATE REP. SLAMS CONGRESSMAN FOR TARP VOTE

Congressman Gresham Barrett is beginning to realize that it was a bad idea to play politics with a decision that could send detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to South Carolina.

Barrett sent an email to nine gubernatorial candidates Tuesday asking them to sign a letter to President Barack Obama demanding that he not send suspected terrorists to the Naval Brig in North Charleston while they await adjudication.

The latest to reply Barrett was State Rep. Nikki Haley, who Wednesday said she would sign the letter, but thought it was nothing more than a political stunt — “the oldest one in the book,” added one South Carolina politico.

“Like most South Carolinians, I of course strongly oppose the Obama Administration transferring terrorists to the Charleston Navy Brig or any facility in our state,” Haley wrote. “However, calling on candidates for Governor to join you in a letter to President Obama, rather than asking your colleagues in Congress – who are actually in a position to prevent this potentially dangerous situation – to do the same, strikes me as little more than political grandstanding.”

But Haley didn’t stop there. Instead, she offered Barrett a little advice on another letter he might think about writing to Obama.

“Please ask the President to stop using taxpayer dollars for the TARP bailout,” wrote Haley. “As you were a supporter of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, adding your voice to the chorus of conservative opposition to that continuing waste of tax dollars might actually prove helpful.

“South Carolina taxpayers are already overburdened without having to foot the bill for bailing out Wall Street’s failed corporate giants.”

Check. Mate.

Haley’s words weren’t quite as harsh as Democrat Mullins McLeod, who told Barrett, “With all due respect, I’d request that you take your letter and shove it.”

But was also a little more pointed than Attorney General Henry McMaster, who said he would sign the letter but that Barrett, as a member of Congress, could better serve South Carolina by working with his colleagues in Washington to tackle the problem.

You can read Haley’s entire letter by clicking here.