I missed the debate. How about filling those of us in who missed it. Who beat up whom?
Who needs to hang it up and just go home?
No, Rick! Stop talking!
This guy is just painfully ignorant. Rick Perry needs to jump back in the limo and ride right on out of town. I can understand misspeaking but his lack of understanding cause and effect simply illustrates he is not capable of running for the presidency. I wouldn’t even want him on the Board of Supervisors.
Most of us can forgive getting centuries mixed up. That’s an easy mistake to make, especially when you are tired. But to apply such foolishness as a cause of the Revolutionary War just illustrates that he needs to go back to Texas and enroll in a couple of history courses. Until then, he just shouldn’t discuss history.
One can only do BS for so long. Then it should start to hurt.
Perry’s Pastor Proclaims Mormons are a Cult
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The Reverend Robert Jeffress introduced presidential hopeful Governor Rick Perry this past weekend at a conservative gathering, the Values Voter Summit. Unfortunately, he was asked about Mitt Romney who is a Mormon. Jeffress declared that while Mitt Romney was a moral, decent person, he wasn’t a Christian because Mormons are a cult. He further stuck his foot in his mouth by declaring that most of mainstream Christianity felt Mormons were also a cult.
He spoke the following words about Rick Perry describing him as: “a proven leader, a true conservative, and a committed follower of Christ.” However, he just wasn’t a Christian.
Supposedly both Rick Perry and his campaign have repudiated Jeffress’s words.
So will the GOP now fight it out over who is a Christian and who isn’t? I have a problem with anyone declaring someone else is not a Christian, especially when that someone is a member of a church called Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Was that a different Jesus? I think not. It is interesting that Jeffress doesn’t elaborate on WHY he doesn’t feel Mormons are Christians and just what makes a ‘cult.’ He seems like a decent man. I haven’t figured out why he would say such a thing.
Is it just me or is a person’s religion sort of personal and not something you attack them on unless they are being jerks about it? Mitt Romney has been rather quiet about the personal side of his religion and that is his right. His personal beliefs really are not our business. Mormons are Christians if they say they are Christians. It is not up to us to question an entire religious movement.
There is no religious test in America. A person can be Christian, Jew, Muslim, Mormon, Catholic, Presbyterian, Hindu, Atheist, Agnostic…or plain old nothing. I guess really, there is a religious test and there should not be.
Meanwhile, between Mormons, N-head rock, and immigration, Rick Perry’s ascent to the stars seems to be over and he seems to be in free-fall mode.
Social experimentation??? Get serious!
Is Rick Santorum suggesting that heterosexuals hide who they are also? Do they lock their children away in the attic along with their wives? Is Santorum too young to realize that DADT was also “social experiementation?” It was an incremental step created by President Bill Clinton to fulfill a campaign promise to gays regarding military service. He met with such resistance he had to offer DADT as an alternative to ending the ban on gays in the military to ward off serious Congressional sanctions/legislation.
Santorum really doesn’t get that being homosexual isn’t always about sex. He totally overlooks the state of being component. How does he propose to put that genie back in the bottle?
And as for those trash-a$$es that booed a service member who is honorably serving his country–SHAME ON THEM. They simply have no class. Regardless of how one feels, the booing was totally unacceptable.
Fox/Google Debate 9/22–picks and pans
Those are the sound bytes. So who won, who lost, who was a fool and who will be the candidate? Your opinions please.
Obama goes to mat for Israel despite critics
President Obama is in a very delicate international situation right now as Palestine prepares to ask the UN to recognize its statehood. The United States will vote against this measure in the UN Security Council and in doing so, will piss off most of the Arab nations. However, Palestinian Statehood must come about through peaceful negotiations with Israel, not a UN decree.
Meanwhile, candidates Romney and Perry really need to back off political commentary during this critical period. There cannot be two or three heads of state. Both men, embolden by a recent win in NY-9, are obviously pandering to the normally democratic Jewish vote in an attempt to lure votes away for the Republicans. The posturing needs to stop until these negotiations are over. Further instability in the middle east is not needed so Romney and Perry can pick up a few more votes.
Obama to propose the “Buffett Rule”
From the Huffington Post:
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is expected to seek a new base tax rate for the wealthy to ensure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle income taxpayers.
A White House official said the proposal would be included in the president’s proposal for long term deficit reduction that he will announce Monday. The official spoke anonymously because the plan has not been officially announced.
Obama is going to call it the “Buffett Rule” for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained that rich people like him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.
Buffett wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece last month that he and his rich friends “have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress.”
The measure would be in addition to $447 billion in new tax revenue that Obama is seeking to pay for his short-term spending and tax cutting plan to jump start the economy.
House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday he would oppose tax increasesto reduce the deficit. Boehner has urged Congress’ deficit “supercommittee” to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code.
The panel has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in federal spending and taxes and is working against a deadline of Nov. 23.
Boehner said the panel has “only one option, spending cuts and entitlement reforms,” a reference to government benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
It’s about time. Most of us are tired of hearing how everything is going to come off the packs of those receiving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in order to protect the rich. If the rich are job producers? Where are the jobs? Oh, no one will create them because the economy is “skittish?” I repeat, where are the jobs? I suppose the ” job producers” aren’t really job producers. They are just people who want to keep their part of the pie and let the middle class shoulder the cost.
Any middle class person who falls for this like of bull puckey deserves to be taxed. However, leave me out out of it. And while we are on the subject of pet peeves, how about those entitlements? You know–the Social Security and Medicare that you and your employer have paid in to for decades. Entitlements my a$$! Touch my “entitlements,” lost your job! Is this where I say pry my SS check out of my cold dead hands? You get the picture. Fear the Boomers!
Warren Buffett’s op-ed click here.
Galileo and Rick Perry
Ari Melbor (Huffington Post op-ed)
The most striking part of the first full-blown debate in the Republican primary was the total rejection of science.
In a surreal scene near the night’s end, Gov. Rick Perry likened the people denying global warming science to Galileo. To observe that he has that history exactly backwards — it was the Church that accused Galileo of heresy in 1633 for scientific theories which were on the right track — is merely to observe that Perry’s substantive errors come with their own stylistic snafus. Perhaps that is fitting. More consequential, however, was the answer that Perry failed to provide.
The original question asked him to name a single scientist that supported his views. None of his opponents seized on the gaffe, since apart from the exception-of-the-night, Gov. Huntsman, every other candidate was aiming for the same conservative turf on which Perry stood. And unlike Gov. Palin’s famous inability to name her sources, the media is likely to put Perry’s problems aside, in order to focus on the “fireworks” that finally broke out between top tier candidates.
Is Bachmann getting the squeeze?
First off, let me say that I cannot ever see myself voting for Michele Bachmann. Her world view is so far from mine, I would probably just stay home from the polls. I could never vote for an anti-science president. However, I am going to defend Bachmann against Rick Perry, who spews just about the same nuttiness, in my opinion, as does Bachmann.
You have to respect Bachmann for her work ethic. She has been out there since day one, preaching her message, rain or shine. She makes a gaffe, she picks herself up and moves forward. She is spunky. At first I thought Palin was going to come roaring in, in all her glitz and glamour, and kick Michele aside. To her credit, I think, she did not do so. Palin has never seen a spotlight she didn’t like. And no one has ever accused Palin of waiting in line or playing by the rules.
It isn’t Palin pushing Bachmann aside, it is Rick Perry. He came roaring in to town, in all his male glitz and glamour, and basically shoved Bachmann aside. He might not even have noticed. Huge egos rarely notice who they step on. I feel badly for Bachmann. She is a true work horse. She isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty and she has been out there for months, socking it to the world and giving her message to anyone who will listen. She has done the work. Now in swoops Perry to claim his prize. The little woman has prepared the way. I hope Bachmann is furious. I hope the base notices. Bachmann should not be slighted. She has done the work, not Perry.
www.NoLabels.org: Electronic Townhall Meeting
From Politico:
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz continued his rhetorical war against Washington gridlock Tuesday during a conference call and webcast castigating the White House and Congress for the nation’s deficit and unemployment rate.
In a conference call that was heavy on angry us-against-Washington rhetoric and deficit and unemployment statistics and light on policy proposals, Schultz reiterated his call for the federal government to immediately work to reduce both the deficit and unemployment.
I participated in the electronic townhall meeting and the above was definitely not what I walked away with. Politico makes it sound Washington (read leadership in both parties.) should be scrambling to see who can play the victim card the fastest because big, bad, Howard Shultz is after them. That isn’t what it was about.
“Melanin is thicker than water?”
I guess Rush Limbaugh has just announced that he will vote for whatever white candidate is on the ticket. According to News One:
Right wing talk show host, Rush Limbaugh reiterated what he said during the 2008 Election when he said that Powell supported the candidate Barack Obama “because he’s Black” on his radio show.
After Colin Powell told CBS News “Face The Nation” that he wasn’t sure who he was going to vote for in the 2012 Election, Limbaugh said on his radio show that Powell will vote for President Obama in 2012 because “melanin is thicker than water.”
Colin Powell is one of the most respected military and political leaders of our time. He has served his nation in time of war as a general and again as Secretary of State under George W. Bush. He is hardly ‘wink wink nudge nudge’ material.
Using Limbaugh logic (is that an oxymoron?), the United States must have a great many more blacks than are showing up on the census in order for Obama to ever have been elected in the first place if “melanin is thicker than water.” Perhaps Limbaugh is math challenged.
This kind of thinking is popping up in all sorts of places. Rush was actually a little kinder than a couple of the local blogs here in Prince William County who have busied themselves with making fun of those individuals and organizations supporting local “minority” candidates for office. I suppose they forget that PWC is now a majority-minority county. As of 2008, about 10% of the counties in the United States were designated at majority-minority which simply means that non-Hispanic whites are less than 49% of the population. More areas are joining those majority-minority ranks, according to today’s Washington Post.
I would hate to see our elections break down along racial lines, especially our local elections. Locally, some groups seem to have little compunction against name-calling and finger pointing if the candidates aren’t “their brand.” Perhaps some of the blogs need to stick to topic and issues rather than trying to hang labels on certain candidates.
Cantor says no disaster relief without spending cuts
Is Eric Cantor nuts? Millions of people are facing down a category 3 hurricane headed towards the major cities on the east coast. Is this the kind of news they need to hear?
According to businessinsider.com:
A spokesperson for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said that if there is any damage caused by Hurricane Irene requiring federal disaster funding, the money would have to be balanced out by spending cuts elsewhere in government.We aren’t going to speculate on damage before it happens, period,” his spokesperson Laena Fallon told TalkingPointsMemo. “But, as you know, Eric has consistently said that additional funds for federal disaster relief ought to be offset with spending cuts.”
If the storm causes damage while passing over highly populated areas as predicted, help from the federal government might not be quick in coming.
Already states from North Carolina to New York have declared states of emergency in preparation for the storm.
Part of governments job is protecting its citizens. There are times that people do all they can do to take care of themselves and it still doesn’t cut it. Obviously it can’t send an army to stop a hurricane, so it must help rebuild and repair. What is Eric Cantor thinking? Is he playing tough guy or is he just stupid and insensitive?
Rove vs Palin spills over onto the Greta Show
Is there anyone in the GOP that Sarah Palin has not spared with? She and Rove go at it, she insulted the Bushes, and a host more of the Old Guard. Rove, unlike some of the folks on Fox, isn’t pulling any punches and calls her thin skinned. That’s a first. I never thought Karl Rove and I would agree. But damn, that woman throws the victim card more than anyone I have ever seen.
Additionally, Palin upstages the other candidates. She is not making friends in her own party. Might she run as an Independent? It’s time to announce or go on back to Wasilla.
Huntsman warns GOP about becoming the ‘anti-science party’
Jon Huntsman cautions Republicans against becoming “the anti-science party.”
Washington Post 8/22/11
From the New York Times:
The former governor, who served as ambassador to China under President Obama before quitting that post this year to pursue the presidency, has tried to stake out a middle ground in a contest where the loudest voices have come from what he referred to on Sunday as “the fringes.”
Mr. Huntsman insisted that the American public was “crying out for a sensible middle ground.” He described the United States as a center-right country and said that was precisely where he stood.
Mr. Huntsman fared poorly in the Ames straw poll last weekend in Iowa, a state to which he had devoted little attention. He received less than 1 percent of the vote; Mrs. Bachmann won with 29 percent.
So what does this mean? Independents and moderates from both parties are embracing Jon Huntsman and breathing a sigh of relief that there really is a Republican who calls for sensible middle ground. Meanwhile, hard core Republicans have turned up their respective noses like a skunk is in the barn. Read More
Rick Perry: Pay to Play Texas Style?
From the New York Times:
Mr. Perry leapt into the Republican presidential primary this month preceded by his reputation as a thoroughbred fund-raiser. But a review of Mr. Perry’s years in office reveals that one of his most potent fund-raising tools is the very government he heads.
Over three terms in office, Mr. Perry’s administration has doled out grants, tax breaks, contracts and appointments to hundreds of his most generous supporters and their businesses. And they have helped Mr. Perry raise more money than any politician in Texas history, donations that have periodically raised eyebrows but, thanks to loose campaign finance laws and a business-friendly political culture dominated in recent years by Republicans, have only fueled Mr. Perry’s ascent.
“Texas politics does have this amazing pay-to-play culture,” said Harold Cook, a Democratic political consultant.
Mark Miner, a spokesman for Mr. Perry, said there was no connection between Mr. McHale’s contributions and the grant to G-Con. He said that the purpose of the state money was to create jobs and that it was appropriate for Mr. Perry to appoint people who support his vision and policies to state oversight posts.
“These issues have been brought up in previous elections to no avail,” Mr. Miner said.
Good grief! Is Texas D.C. (city) politics on steroids? That stuff might fly down in Texas but once national sunshine hits some of the Governor’s ‘deals’ there might be some fast back-pedaling. The days of influence pedaling were over, I thought. Government is not supposed to be used to pay back those who have been generous.
