We are Number 2; Dressed in Black; Ace in the Hole; It’s TUESDAY Morning in the Palmetto State.

***Palmetto Morning Presented by Jim Dyke & Associates***

THIS FIRST — DO IT AGAIN — Although they’ve made four trips to the polls to vote in city races in April and state primaries in June, Columbia City Council District 2 voters owe it to themselves to go out once again today — this time to elect the person who will represent their district. Despite this being their fifth time at the polls in the past few months — and they’re very likely to have to return for a run-off in two weeks — district voters shouldn’t even think about sitting out this historic and important election.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Spud “double pump dunk” Webb and the stars of “Stars” Patrick Stewart and Harrison Ford

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NATIONAL LENS — MUSLIM OUTREACH — The White House is contradicting NASA administrator’s Charles Bolden’s claim that President Barack Obama assigned him to reach out to Muslims on science matters. Bolden, a Columbia native appointed by Obama to run the nation’s space agency, recently told Al-Jazeera network that one of the charges the president gave him was “to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering.” Some conservative activists criticized the remarks. U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., a Bolden supporter, came to his defense Monday.

PRICING PROPOSAL — The Senate sponsors of a sweeping climate change bill are drafting a scaled-back version focused on electric power plants in a bid to salvage a role for greenhouse gas curbs in the Senate energy debate. Kerry and Lieberman will meet Tuesday with environmental group leaders and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to discuss a final push to price carbon. They are also hosting their regularly scheduled Tuesday gathering with other senators as they struggle to keep carbon provisions in the mix.

NO SHADES OF GRAY — South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who once proclaimed that he’d rather have “30 Republicans in the Senate who believe in principles of freedom than 60 who don’t believe in anything,” continues to endorse Senate candidates and give leaders in his own party migraine headaches. But one politician must be smiling from ear to ear when he follows DeMint’s antics: President Barack Obama.

WORK IT — The House should stay in session during August unless it can knock out enough of its legislative priorities, the chamber’s third-ranking Democrat said Monday evening.  Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) raised the specter of working past the point at which lawmakers are scheduled to break for their yearly August recess. Clyburn said the House should stay in session until it can pass an extension in unemployment benefits and other top legislative priorities.

CALL IN DAY — For 110 years America has reigned as the world’s number one manufacturing nation. Next year, China is expected to wrest that title from the United States. Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would impose tariffs on Chinese imports to offset the effect of the currency manipulation. It wouldn’t give American industry an unfair advantage; it would just take the steroids away from Chinese manufacturers. Today is National Currency Manipulation Call-In Day. Tell your Senators and Congressman to stop the devaluation of U.S. manufacturing and U.S. workers.

LEANING LINDSEY — South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is sending strong signals that he may again buck his party and become the lone GOP senator on the Judiciary Committee to vote for Elena Kagan to be confirmed to the Supreme Court. Graham’s decision won’t change the fact that she’s expected to be approved by the heavily Democratic Judiciary Committee when it votes on her nomination next week. But his support could convince other wayward Republicans on the floor to support her nomination – and ensure that any GOP filibuster would almost certainly fall flat.

HOWEVER — A GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he expects Republicans to delay for a week the panel’s confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan. “It’s just the normal way of doing business,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said when asked why his party would delay the vote, which is permitted by committee rules. Graham said he wants the extra time to review Kagan’s response to written questions he submitted to her.

SUNDAY SPEECH — The mystery man who won a Senate nomination without campaigning in any traditional way has scheduled his first speech since last month’s surprise victory in South Carolina’s Democratic Party primary. Alvin Greene tells The Associated Press he will talk about “jobs, education and justice, the campaign for the general election,” when he addresses a local NAACP chapter on Sunday.

FIVE BLOCKS — Two senators leading a bipartisan crusade to end the much-maligned use of “secret holds” to surreptitiously block bills and appointments have encountered an ironic obstacle: A single senator keeps blocking their efforts. Five times, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has thwarted passage of an amendment that would eliminate secret holds in the Senate — and he’s vowing not to budge until changes are made.

INTIMIDATION — A lawyer in the U.S. Attorney’s Charleston office finds himself in the middle of a growing national story over whether the U.S. Justice Department properly handled a case of voter intimidation two years ago. And South Carolina’s senior senator is asking questions about it, too.

JIM JOINS — WND managing editor and best-selling author David Kupelian will join the lineup of congressmen, senators, authors and activists addressing hundreds of highly motivated college students at the 17th Annual Eagle Forum Leadership Summit. Held at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., Thursday and Friday, the event, presented annually by Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum, will feature prominent members of Congress on Thursday, and authors and activists on Friday.

CROONING IN KANSAS — On a recent day, Jerry Moran stands before a crowd crackling with energy in the VFW Hall of Olathe, a suburb west of Kansas City. The Republican Senate candidate is here to tout his own credentials — and to introduce a key backer: GOP Sen. Jim DeMint, a man sometimes billed as “Senator Tea Party.” DeMint is defined in Washington by what he opposes — which is just about all spending programs, the immigration overhaul proposed by President Bush and pretty much anything the Obama administration wants. To this crowd, DeMint is a rock star.

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2010 WATCH — S.C. campaign leaders report their financial standings

BILLS AND BRAGGING — Democrat Vincent Sheheen has more money than Republican gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley. But Sheheen’s money lead could be fleeting because Haley has momentum. Haley’s commanding performances in the Republican primary and subsequent runoff, paired with national media exposure, are building her a broad fundraising base that bodes well for her gubernatorial candidacy. But Sheheen has some bragging rights too.

LONG TALK — The debate over the ordination of practicing homosexuals to the ministry of the Presbyterian Church USA once again moves to the local level, leaving some clergy energized and others worn out by the continuing debate.

MAKE A CHOICE — After the primary, South Carolina Democrats selected one candidate to challenge the incumbent senator, Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; but, in Aiken County, the local Democratic party seems to offer two choices – Greene or Green. The Aiken County Democratic Party is giving “options” as to whom the party thinks should be elected to the U.S. Senate by listing primary winner Alvin M. Greene of Manning as a candidate and also listing a link to the campaign page of Green Party candidate Tom Clements on the group’s website.

THANKS TO BOBBY — CNN reports the Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal offered his political clout in the last minutes of the GOP primary in an effort to help South Carolina’s Nikki Haley capture the GOP nomination. FEC filings show Mr. Jindal, the Republican governor of Louisiana, assisted the political newcomer in her run for the GOP nomination. Mr. Jindal’s campaign committee directed $3,500 to Ms. Haley, a fellow Indian-American, on June 16.

CHAPIN — Grant money will help continue drop-out prevention program

CONWAY — Interim Principal named for the Academy for Arts, Science & Technology

RICHLAND — NE Richland group organizing against tax plan

CLEMSON — Clemson University offers separation incentives

SPARTANBURG — New Spartanburg medical school hires 4 administrators

MYRTLE BEACH — Strong home sales in Myrtle Beach area have market smiling

AIKEN — Dyer to speak to Aiken Dems

DARLINGTON — Online school gives students new way to earn high school diploma

SUMMERVILLE — Summerville considers illegal immigrant ban

COLUMBIA — SC State Farmers Market to close, move next month

VIEWPOINT — JUNK YARD DOG — “Judge Robert Bork was rejected by the Senate. Within 45 minutes of Robert Bork’s nomination to the Court, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech. Fast forward to 2010. After Elena Kagan’s nomination no Republican went on the Senate floor to denounce her as Ted Kennedy had done years earlier to Judge Bork. So you can see the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democrats fight tooth and nail and Republicans wimp out.”

VIEWPOINT II — NOT SO ROSY — “Sadly, with President Obama, each day is crazier than the previous one. His latest economic speeches border on the surreal. I just can’t quite figure out who he thinks his audience is because so much of what he says doesn’t square with reality. Though I don’t intend to go all “Joe Wilson” on him (“You lie!”), please let me share with you a few, shall we say, “discrepancies” in his speech, the major theme of which could be summarized as ‘I inherited the worst economy since the Depression, and I saved us from a new depression because I say I did.’”

VIEWPOINT III — FAKE-OUT — “Many of us in the press have had a field day noting Sen. John McCain’s (R., Ariz.) transformation from immigration maverick to the Wyatt Earp of border control. Fair enough. Back when it counted, however, Mr. McCain was the only Republican presidential candidate to back the last real chance we had for passing a bipartisan immigration compromise. Meanwhile, a man who claims to favor immigration reform but helped derail that 2007 effort gets a free pass. Today this same man is at it again, calling for a new bipartisan effort even as he diminishes the likelihood of any such reform with his continued partisan snipes. The man is Barack Obama.”

FINALLY THIS — NO GAMECOCK — If a man approaches you and says he’s works at USC and he has to borrow money to pay his motel bill, don’t give it to him unless you can afford to lose it.

THAT’S IT FOR THIS MORNING – STAY TUNED ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK FOR UPDATES THAT JUST CAN’T WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW.  HAVE A GOOD ONE!