DeMint Favors Nuclear Waste Reprocessing at Savannah River Site

From the South Carolina Green Party website:

DeMint did not appear, but issued the following statement through his spokesman, again quoted by The State:

“I would urge the commission to fully explore the possibilities available in dealing with this waste, including nuclear recycling….Without a final destination for our nation’s nuclear waste, I fear that our nuclear industry will never reach its full potential…’’

Both DeMint and Graham strongly endorsed bringing nuclear waste to the SRS despite the lack of a permanent depository after reprocessing. Yucca Mountain in Nevada was once intended as a more-or-less permanent site, but this project was terminated in the previous Democratic congress.

The Yucca site was supposed to take much of the nation’s burden by disposing of the highly radioactive material inside a hollowed out mountain some 90 miles from Las Vegas. But it was highly controversial in Nevada, home of influential Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, and President Obama dropped the plan after taking office. Billions of dollars have been spent developing the site over the past two decades.

Tom Clements, a nuclear policy expert and South Carolina Green Party 2010 nominee for U.S. Senate, spoke to the panel and was also quoted by the paper:

Tom Clements of Columbia, a nuclear program coordinator with Friends of the Earth, told panelists that reprocessing is a bad idea. The nation needs a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste, but there is no rush, he said. Commercial radioactive waste can be stored safely at power plants for a century, he said, citing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission document. Environmentalists say reprocessing can result in the nation’s spent nuclear fuel being sent to SRS, effectively making it a dumping ground.

“We don’t want South Carolina to become the new Yucca Mountain, and we’re going to fight it,’’ Clements said.

Read the rest: http://scgreenparty.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/news-roundup-on-recent-nuclear-reprocessing-hearing/

Clements Thanks Voters: End of the campaign means beginning of new efforts

The 2010 elections are over, but the fight against corporate big-government politics goes on. Jim DeMint handily won his reelection with a little over 60% of the vote without bothering to campaign in South Carolina. Two bright spots are evident in the results from this election. Most of the candidates backed by DeMint failed in the general election, so the millions he raised to delude the public were dollars down the drain. And 121,000 South Carolinians made a conscious choice to vote for credible progressive candidate Tom Clements over DeMint and the irrelevant Democrat.

The Clements Campaign took out an ad in the November 24 Columbia Free Times to thank its supporters and, maybe more importantly, to announce that the struggle against DeMint’s politics will continue.

The Tom Clements For Senate Campaign thanks its supporters and announces that Jim DeMint is still on watch in the November 24 issue of the Columbia Free Times.

One thing that became apparent in the run up to the November 2 election: you can’t take down an entrenched incumbent like Jim DeMint without a full movement opposing his policies and proposing new ones. Consider the relative weakness of his opposition his opponents received relatively high returns:

Final returns from South Carolina's 2010 race for U.S. Senate. Source: http://www.enr-scvotes.org/SC/19077/40477/en/summary.html

About 38% of all South Carolina voters are definitely opposed to DeMint.  Given that the Clements campaign ran for about $50,000 and that Alvin Greene ran no campaign at all, there is a real depth of opposition to DeMint and his policies.

The Free Times ad points out only one of DeMint’s weaknesses: his nonstop talk about cutting the budget without offering any plans for government spending.   With the Great Recession stretching on, sitting politicians like DeMint will be required to put up or shut up about spending priorities: will DeMint work to guarantee Social Security or will he send tax dollars to fight the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?   Will he work to control health care costs or will he propose Medicare cuts while promising tax cuts to corporations?

DeMint’s track record speaks for itself.   We can predict that he’ll be proposing harmful cuts that will hurt the elderly and sick, while protecting the profits of corporations, and spending trillions abroad on wars without end.

We think the election results show that a large number of South Carolinians are opposed to DeMint’s kind politics and want to reorient our priorities to put human needs first.

DeMint Watch can play a role in getting South Carolina Politics and the national debate back on track.  Post a comment or drop us a line at DeMintWatch@gmail.com if you’re one of the people who opposed DeMint on November 2.  We’ve got a lot of work to do.

DeMint took money from BP, then blocked the investigation of the oil spill on the floor of the Senate

DeMint took money from BP, then blocked the investigation of the oil spill on the floor of the Senate.  This legislation passed the House with the support of 169 Republicans, but DeMint blocked it from reaching the floor of the senate.

Here’s DeMint on the floor of the Senate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOAKBjYNHW0

In the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, DeMint the floor to block S.3462, and kill the subpoena of BP’s records relating to the spill and also neuter the oil spill investigation commission. This July 1 report by Mother Jones explains what DeMint did to block investigation after the oil had already been spilling for over 60 days:

Yesterday Republicans blocked a bill that would grant subpoena power to the oil spill commission President Obama formed to investigate the Deepwater Horizon disaster and make policy recommendations to prevent future drilling calamities.
[...]
But when Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) attempted to bring up the bill under unanimous consent yesterday, Jim DeMint (R-SC) blocked it. His spokesman told Politico that DeMint didn’t object to it personally. On the floor, the senator said he was objecting “on behalf of other members of the Republican caucus.” Who in particular? Well, obviously no one wanted to admit as much.

- Source: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/Demint-blocks-subpoena-bill-oil-spill

Politico did a story on the incident as well:

A similar measure passed the House last week by a vote of 420-1. A spokesman for DeMint said the South Carolina senator himself does not object to giving the commission subpoena power, but was acting on behalf of “members of the Republican conference.”

-Source: http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=89C1A3F8-18FE-70B2-A827F2E3BB5ABA6F

How-To: South Carolina Absentee Voting

If you think you might be away from home, or are concerned about working on election day, lock in your vote against Jim DeMint now: vote absentee.

Absentee voting in SC can done by mail, or in person.  Here’s how to do it:

In Person – Visit your county voter registration office , complete an application, and cast your ballot.  You may vote absentee in person up until 5:00 p.m. on the day before the election.

By Mail – This is a three step process:

1. Request an “Absentee Ballot Application” – email your county voter registration office with your registered name, address and date of birth.  Include the address you’d want the application sent to.  Find the county voter registration office here:http://www.scvotes.org/2009/10/15/absentee_voting

2. Absentee Ballot Application – Receive it from your county voter registration office in the mail and send it back. It must be received by 5:00 pm on Friday, October 29.

3. Absentee Ballot – Receive it and send it back with your vote. The county voter registration office must receive it by 7:00 pm on Tuesday, November 2.

After you submit the ballot, check the status of your vote here:https://webprod.cio.sc.gov/SCSECVoterWeb/voterInformationSearch.do

Congratulations, you’re a South Carolina voter!  If you voted against Jim DeMint, you’ve struck a blow for freedom against political fundamentalism.

DeMint’s Opponent Responds To Anti-Gay, Anti-Working Women Comments

A backlash is building against GOP Senate incumbent Jim DeMint as one of his ballot qualified opponents is interviewed criticizing DeMints religious test for school teachers.

The October 4 edition of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal ran a lengthy article in response to incumbent Jim DeMint’s widely quoted statements advocating the exclusion of gays and sexually active single women from teaching jobs. These statements were also originally reported by the Herald-Journal.

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http://www.goupstate.com/article/20101005/ARTICLES/10051011/1083/ARTICLES?p=all&tc=pgall

Clements criticizes DeMint on gay teacher issue: Opponent for Senate blasts incumbent for stance on who is fit to teach

By Jason Spencer, jason.spencer@shj.com. Spartanburg Herald-Journal.

[...]

Tom Clements, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, criticized incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint on Monday for saying gay people and unmarried women who sleep with their boyfriends shouldn’t be allowed to teach.

“If he wants to come up with guidelines for some kind of morality test, I challenge him to produce it,” Clements, 59, said in an interview at the Herald-Journal.

“Lay out how you’re going to screen out people you don’t like. And how far does it go? Does it go beyond gay people, or single women, or single males? Let’s hear how extensive your morality test is going to be applied to people. And I don’t think people in South Carolina would agree that somebody else’s morality test be applied to public school teachers.”

DeMint spoke to several hundred people Friday night at a Greater Freedom Rally at First Baptist North Spartanburg.

He told the crowd that if someone is openly homosexual or if an unmarried woman sleeps with her boyfriend, then that person shouldn’t be allowed in the classroom.

He talked about taking that position in the past, saying, “No one came to my defense. But everyone would come to me and whisper that I shouldn’t back down. They don’t want government purging their rights and their freedom of religion.”

The comments harken back to those he made in his 2004 Senate race. Then, he apologized for “distracting” from the debate — saying hiring policies should be left to local school boards — but not for the actual comments.

Clements took issue with this.

“He’s trying to push his version of religion onto the entire country. And I believe in separation of church and state. And I do believe that gay people should have equal rights,” Clements said. “That’s his belief, but I don’t think he can force that on society as a whole or the public school system.”

[...]

Clements praised the call for military budget cuts put forth by Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas, and Barney Frank, D-Mass. He called DeMint “a strong supporter of the military-industrial complex which is financially andmorally bankrupting our country.”

He also accused DeMint of “big government corporate elitism,” where rampant privatization of government programs and services benefits only a small number of large corporations: “That’s the big government he likes.”

Clements estimated his campaign had raised about $30,000 as of Sept. 30. That compares with the nearly $3.7 million DeMint had on hand this summer.
[...]