Back in the spring, lots of folks got a laugh out of Texas Governor Rick Perry for suggesting that Texas secede during a tea party protest. It looks like he might not have been kidding. Perry has formed an organization called the Texas Nationalist Movement which advocates secession. They held a rally on the steps of the state capitol recently. One speaker really needs to check his history facts out before clutching the mic.
Matthews also takes a look at McDonnell’s thesis and dancer Tom Delay.
Are these people in Texas serious or are they just trying to illustrate a point? I have heard several people say they are just going to revolt. Several had elaborate plans to do so. What does all of this mean? Would it have happened if McCain were president?
The Farmer’s Almanac 2010 goes on sale September 1. It predicts an extremely harsh, cold winter this year. The Farmer’s Almanac, which has been printed since 1818 says that ‘numbing cold will predomintate the nation’s midsection.’ Oh joy.
The almanac, which has been published since 1818, issues annual forecasts using a formula based on sunspots, planetary positions and the effects of the moon.
This winter, the 200-page publication says it’ll be cool and snowy in the Northeast, bitterly cold and dry in the Great Lakes states, and cold and snowy across the North Central states.
It says the Northwest will be cool with average precipitation, the Southwest will be mild and dry, the South Central states will be cold and wet, and the Southeast will be mild and dry.
The almanac’s forecast, however, is at odds with the National Weather Service, which is calling for warmer-than-normal temperatures across much of the country because of an El Nino system in the tropical Pacific Ocean, said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the NOAA Climate Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md.
It all boils down to who you are going to believe. Winter is winter. Make sure you have a warm coat, hat and gloves. We aren’t even through hurricane season yet. That isn’t over until November 30. We are at the half way point.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated Tom Ridge book The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again is due out tomorrow. That ought to start everyone fighting. Hard cover is $17.15 Kindle is $14.29 for those of us who like instant gratification.
A 93 page master’s thesis written in 1989 on file at Regent University has gubernatorial candidate hopeful back-pedalling like crazy and asking Virginians to look at his record. Well, that isn’t so good either. We see …well…a mirror image in some cases.
,
What is the blogosphere all a’twitter over? McDonnell’s master’s thesis, in which, according to the Washington Post, he has some rather conservative ideas that just won’t fly in the 21st century:
[H]e described working women and feminists as “detrimental” to the family. He said government policy should favor married couples over “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.” He described as “illogical” a 1972 Supreme Court decision legalizing the use of contraception by unmarried couples.
The paper also lays out a 15 point action plan that the Republican Party needed to adopt in order to protect the family. During his 14 years in the General Assembly, McDonnell attempted to pass legislation on at least 10 of his suggested goals that he has laid out in his research paper: abortion restrictions, school vouchers, “convenant marriage,” tax laws that favored married couples to name a few. As late as 2001 he voted against a law that would end wage discrimination between men and women.
Candidate McDonnell attempted to distance himself from this extremist drivel:
McDonnell added: “Like everybody, my views on many issues have changed as I have gotten older.” He said that his views on family policy were best represented by his 1995 welfare reform legislation and that he “worked to include child day care in the bill so women would have greater freedom to work.” What he wrote in the thesis on women in the workplace, he said, “was simply an academic exercise and clearly does not reflect my views.”
McDonnell also said that government should not discriminate based on sexual orientation or ban contraceptives and that “I am not advocating vouchers as there are legal questions regarding their constitutionality in Virginia
That fact that anyone in America would think most of these ideas are the business of government or acceptable in modern society is preposterous. The title of the thesis speaks to the problem: “The Republican Party’s Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of The Decade.” I don’t want the Republican Party’s Vision for my family!
Subscribing to these ideas that promote discrimination and UN-equal rights for women, gays, single people and who knows who else, at any time in his adult life, makes McDonnell unacceptable as a candidate for governor. Leopards don’t change their spots and a make over won’t cut it.
