God, is it ever late. But this story is just too funny to pass up — and the dailies for some reason don’t run the really juicy detail. For some time now the Governor of the South Carolina has been pulling out every stop to prevent the federal government 
from depositing plutonium in his state — which I guess is pretty understandable. It’s sort of a mini-version of the whole controversy about Yucca Mountain out in Nevada, where they want to store all the spent nuclear power plant fuel.
Anyway, ever since John Calhoun’s time the South Carolinians have been ready to nullify federal laws and orders and generally lead their Southern brethren down the dark path of treason against the United States pretty much at the drop of a hat. Of course, Andrew Jackson made it clear you couldn’t do this about one hundred and seventy years ago and the Civil War sort of settled the matter for good about thirty years later. 
But yesterday South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges tried out a comedic latter-day version of nullification by declaring a state of emergency and basically outlawing any transit of weapons-grade plutonium on South Carolina roads and highways.
So if you have any and you were planning on driving it through South Carolina, well … don’t! Because you’re not allowed to do that anymore.
Anyway, what exactly Hodges is up to isn’t exactly clear. But part of his rationale is pretty damn funny. You’ll remember that Jose Padilla — gang-banger bad seed turned al Qaida bad seed — is now being held in a military prison down in South Carolina. 
Hodge’s new argument is basically this … Look, you’ve got the Padilla guy down here and you’re saying he was going to build a dirty bomb by stealing nuclear materials, right? And now you’re going to bring nuclear materials into the state? So close to Padilla? After he said he wants to make a dirty bomb? Hell, that’s just too dangerous. Too close. No can do. Sorry.
Look, I’m not making this up. Here are the first grafs of the governor’s executive order …
WHEREAS, according to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, a “known terrorist” with connections to al Qaeda who allegedly planned to build and explode a radioactive “dirty bomb” in the United States has been recently captured by federal authorities and is presently being detained as an enemy combatant in Charleston, South Carolina;
WHEREAS, a “dirty bomb” is a conventional incendiary device laced with radioactive materials that upon detonation scatters and disperses radioactive particles into the atmosphere, thereby exposing potentially thousands of persons to radiation;
WHEREAS, weapons-grade plutonium is a primary ingredient utilized in creating dirty bombs;
WHEREAS, the United States Department of Energy has publicly announced that it will begin sending truck shipments of weapons-grade plutonium to the Savannah River Site located in Aiken and Barnwell Counties, South Carolina as soon as June 15, 2002;
WHEREAS, when, in the Governor’s opinion, a danger exists to the person or property of any citizen and the peace and tranquility of the State or of any political subdivision or particular area of the State designated by him is threatened, the Governor shall declare an emergency and may take such measures and do all and every act and thing which he may deem necessary in order to prevent violence or threats of violence to the person or property of citizens of the State and to maintain peace, tranquility and good order, pursuant to § 1-3-410, et seq., of the South Carolina Code of Law
Poor Ashcroft. Some posts just pretty much write themselves.
