Perry bans non citizens from campaign event

New Hampshire-based Associated Press writer Steve Peoples reported on Twitter that staffers at a Rick Perry campaign event there were asking reporters if they were U.S. citizens because only citizens would be allowed at the event.

As we know Perry is the King of the anti-immigrant candidate, but a few questions we have are:

Should a candidate for President of the United States put restrictions on the media?

If Perry were to be elected, would he continue this policy?

Does this policy apply to all foreigners or just Mexicans and Arabs?

We will see how this progresses.

Perry, Texas Tea Party and King Street Patriots “Hell Bent on Disenfranchising Poor”

he Democratic Party of Texas blasted the The Houston Texas Tea Party group, King Street Patriots, for inviting columnist Matthew Vadum to speak at a fundraising event.  Vadum has written that registering poor people to vote was “antisocial and un-American”

As we wrote earlier this year during the 2010 election the King Street Patriots poll watchers participating in the “True The Vote” campaign were accused of numerous voting infractions and were being investigated by the Justice Department for their anti-voter fraud campaign after receiving a number of complaints about voter intimidation in Hispanic and African-American areas.

The Texas Democratic Party issues  a Press Release yesterday titled “King Street Patriots: Un-American for Poor to Vote”

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie said

“It’s fitting that the group whose sole purpose is to harass and intimidate minority voters would feature a rightwing extremist who thinks poor people shouldn’t be allowed to vote. But at least the King Street Patriots are finally being honest. This event serves as a gleeful admission from their group that folks who are likely to vote Democratic should be denied their fundamental right to vote.

Sadly, this group that’s hell bent on disenfranchising poor-folks and minorities is not an anomaly in today’s Republican Party. Rick Perry, the head of the Republican Party in Texas, has taken the lead in disenfranchising Texans. Perry’s redistricting plan was struck down because it violates the Voting Rights Act and his voter suppression legislation has not been pre-cleared because it is designed to keep certain people from voting. The King Street Patriots and Rick Perry are two peas in a pod.”

The Gov is indeed arm in arm with the radical group.  The Tea Bagger’s keep up the claim they are only looking out for voter fraud when indeed they are truly only trying to keep certain portions of the citizenry from voting at all.

Texas provided “incomplete” information that does not enable federal officials to determine whether their proposed voter ID law would be discriminatory, the Justice Department said today.

DOJ Civil Rights Division Voting Section Chief T. Christian Herren Jr. writes that Texas did not provide any of the required data on race. The Gov said that the voter registration process does not require an applicant to state his or her race, but the State is trying to compile the information from Department of Public Safety information as quickly as possible.

Redistricting plan rejected, now pushing what amounts to Jim Crow laws.  The King Street Patriots are w0rking arm and arm with The Gov to disenfranchise as many minority and poor Texans as they can in what they see as an effort to dilute the Democratic Vote.  The Gov even before his Presidential run was in bed with the group and praised the King Street Patriot’s president, Catherine Engelbrecht, at the ribbon cutting of  the grand opening of their new headquarters.

Valero To Get $92 Million Tax Break While School Budgets Are Cut

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s commissioners appointed by The Gov are poised to grant some of the nation’s largest refineries a tax refund of more than $135 million.  As we have on previous reports,  The schools in Texas are severely under funded and rank 3rd from the bottom in the nation for drop out rates, low graduation rates and have one of the highest childhood poverty rates. Millions of Texas students began the school year without new textbooks and other essential school supplies because The Gov. slashed the Education Budget.  $135 million would help some of the cash strapped schools.

Public education funding was gutted in the budget The Gov signed this year. But The Gov’s hand-picked appointees look like they are ready to take more to give to their rich patron’s Big Oil in the name of a tax break.

Valero has persistently lobbied for the refund and is set to receive more than $92 million from the commission. Valero has given more money to The Gov.  than any other politician in the country except one.

Perry For No Child Left Behind Before He Was Against It

Do these people running for President think we are just stupid?  They think they can just spout off any nonsense they want and we will believe then and follow them like sheep.  Case in point.  At the Faux News-Google Tea Party Debate, our beloved Gov said “I was also vocal against No Child Left Behind. It gets back to the federal government has no business telling the states how to educate our children.”

Okie Dokie.  Sounds good, the Teabaggers love it.  One itsy bitsy problem, in 2002, The Gov loved No Child Left Behind, even issuing a Press Release on his Official State of Texas Governor’s web site.

Friday, July 26, 2002  •  Press Release

 HOUSTON – Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today that Texas’ No Child Left Behind implementation plan has received federal approval. The approval clears the way for almost $400 million in new federal funding, moving the governor’s education plan a step closer to the classroom.

“Texas was a model for President Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation, and we continue to lead the nation “in innovative solutions to improve our schools”, Perry said. “The U.S. Department of Education’s stamp of approval means we can move forward with our plan to improve early childhood education, dropout prevention, teaching excellence, science education and our schools’ use of technology.”

The Texas Education Agency submitted the state’s No Child Left Behind implementation plan to the U.S. Department of Education last month. The plan includes funding to help local school districts implement Perry’s blueprint to continue improvements in Texas schools.

So The Gov champions taking $400,000,000 from the nasty Federal Government and then brags that Texas will “lead the nation in innovative solutions to improve our schools.”

Did it happen?  Nope!

According to the Center for Public Policy Priorities,  since taking $400 million in new federal funding, Texas now ranks 3rd from the bottom for High School Drop Outs.  Who is worse than Texas?  Only Arizona and Nevada.

How much of the “$400 million in new federal funding” went to promoting “Innovative solutions to improve our schools” or creationist quasi religious anti-science programs we will probably never know.  But what has been the result of these so called “Innovative solutions to improve our schools”?  You be the judge:

  • Texas has one of the highest dropout rates in the nation
  • The National Kids Count Project estimates that 13 percent of all Texas’ 16-19 year olds are not enrolled in school and not high school graduates.
  • The poverty rate among high school dropouts is estimated at 31 percent — 10 times that of college graduates.
  • One report states that 89% percent of Texas prison inmates did not complete high school.
  • Texas has the nation’s fourth highest adult incarceration rate.

So what does this tell us?  Texas does not invest in its children.  Texas takes the cheap route with the end result of a significant drag on its own economy.

Instead of investing, yeah I know that’s a dirty word to the Teabaggers, in our children we end up with huge spending on prisons and poverty.

This is only a glimpse of what is to come if Texas were to secede.  Remember folks,  these Teabaggers that want secession also want to end Public Education.  Every one of the GOP Presidential Candidates wants to abolish the Department of Education. People of Texas need to wake up and realize that not all government spending is bad.  Investing in our youth only benefits us.  Educated, productive citizens only help the economy of Texas while the inverse has only a negative result.

Pat Robertson Says Having Alzheimer’s An OK Reason To Get Divorced

This just gets my craw.  Irks me to no end.  Flat out pisses me off.  I guess you get my drift.

The Associated Press reports that past presidential candidate and leader of the 700 Club, Pat Robertson told his viewers that “divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s is justifiable”.  Robertson went on to say “I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her.”

Robertson’s co-host, asked about a couples’ marriage vows, you know that part about to take care of each other “for better or for worse” and “in sickness and in health.”

Pobertson replied “If you respect that vow, you say ’til death do us part, this is a kind of death.”

WTF? This is just on of hundreds of examples of how the new Republican brand of religion is 180 out.

Another example is The Gov’s visit to at  the Rev. Jerry Falwell’s, Liberty University, to bolster his religous creds no doubt.  In The Gov’s Speech the students cheered louder at the mention of guns than they did for his mention of living a moral life.

In my humble view, it appears that Republican Christians no longer recognize the teachings of Christ.  They view everything politically, even the Holy Text, The Bible.  I don’t think God would not recognize his so called Evangelical Christian followers.  You know the Teabagger ones that say f^%! the poor, Greed is Good.  The Apostle Mark wrote “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  These very same so called Christians cheered “Yeah” at a recent televised Tea Party Debate, when asked if a poor 30 year old should be left to die if he did not have insurance.

Something has gone truly wrong if this is the modern Christianity.

Perry Holding Disaster Relief Funds Hostage

While berating the Obama Administration for not providing FEMA money to fight the wildfires across Texas, The Gov is holding back 49.7 million dollars which could be used immediately to aid the firefighters who in many cases are having to pay for gear out of their own pockets.  The Gov’s office is in charge of distributing the money from The Disaster Contingency Fund to local governments in cases of emergencies just like the state is encountering right now.

The Gov has said that the fund would “be used to pay costs associated with pre-positioning state resources in anticipation of disasters; reimburse local jurisdictions for disasters that do not meet federal disaster declaration standards; provide up-front funding to smaller jurisdictions that lack the necessary resources to conduct large-scale emergency operations; and pay the federal matching fund obligations that are required for reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).”

Lawmakers have tried to put more money in the fund, especially in the wake of the past few hurricanes, but The Gov has shot down any such expenditures in the wake of the worst budget deficit in modern history.  The Gov said his office will have to evaluate everything first before making any decisions about disaster funding, including requests from lawmakers for a special session to consider tapping into the Rainy Day Fund to help pay for these unprecedented disasters the State is encountering.

It appears as if The Gov, in the midst of his presidential campaign, is playing up to his Teabagger base and promoting their mantra “everyman for himself”.  Lawmakers need to override any veto threat and demand help for the people of this great State.

Are Perry’s Lobbyist and Fat Cat Friends Paying His Wife?

The Austin American-Statesman has published an article that alleges that much of Texas First Lady Anita Perry’s $60k-a-year salary at a nonprofit comes indirectly from The Gov’s political donors, large state contractors, and companies with business before the state legislature.

Mrs. Perry is an employee of the Texas Association Against Sexual Abuse and is paid from the money that she raises from private funding and from state grants from state agencies, including the governor’s office.  Little conflict of interest?

The American-Statesman writes that “donating to the Texas Association Against Sexual Abuse has become just one more legal way for those with an interest in state government to get close to Texas’ first family.”

Futhermore, for some reason, the fundraising for the TAASA increased dramatically after Mrs. Perry was hired.

In 2003, the group reported to the Internal Revenue Service that it had received no donations of $5,000 or more, the minimum required to be disclosed in public IRS filings.  In the first year of her tenure, major donations jumped to $100,000 — with all the money coming from state contractors, lobbyists or donors to the governor’s political account.  Add to that more than 70 percent of the $634,500 in large donations given to the group between 2004 and 2009 came from businesses or individuals with ties to the governor. Add to that, surprise, surprise, these same donors also gave the governor’s political committee, Texans for Rick Perry, a total of $798,000 in contributions in the same year they gave to the TAASA.

And this is the guy who said he was offended at the notion he could be bought for $5,ooo.  So it brings to mind the question of is there an amount he could be bought for?

 

Tea Partiers Cheer Death

When Ron Paul was asked during Monday’s tea party presidential debate if an uninsured 30-year-old who became seriously ill should be allowed to die, several audience members yelled “yes!” and the audience cheered. Paul’s response: “That’s what freedom is all about, taking your own risk.”

I can’t for the life of me believe that the people of this country have sunk this low.  2000 years ago the Romans were cheering Christians being put to death in the Coliseum.  Is that where we are now?  Are we in the declining throes where all we have left is a want to deprive the less prosperous of our own society of basic necessities?

The Preamble of The Constitution of the United States, yes the very document the Teabaggers swear everything in life must adhere to no deviations states

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Look Welfare up in the dictionary and it defines the word as

welfare n. 1. health, happiness, or prosperity; well-being.

I am afraid the Teabaggers do not really care for the Constitution and just want to see blood and I am very afraid we may very well be doomed if this is what a Christian Nation led by the Teabaggers is all about.

 

 

Governor Perry Skips Wildfire Press Conference

The Gov skipped out on a planned visit to Bastrop Texas on Saturday, as criticism of his handling and occasional tone deafness surrounding the dangerous blaze continues to grow. The Campaigner-in-Chief was scheduled to hold a press conference in Bastrop. The location of the press conference was changed once, and then local officials briefed the media without The Gov. His mouthpiece, Allison Castle, reported that The Gov was in Austin

Last week, The Gov was in South Carolina and supposedly left to return to address the wildfires, but decided it would be more fun to go visit some Teabagger friends and do some secessionist planning, campaigning and fundraising out west in California. A spokesman for his fundraising team commented that fundraising was “going like wildfire” – a term many Texans suffering the worst drought and fires consider tone deaf to their current situation.

Perry Gets Physical with 70+ Year Old Ron Paul

Apparently The Gov didn’t like Ron Paul’s pre-debate ad buy or something he said during the debate. During the break while cameras were not rolling, The Gov got in Ron Paul’s face and took hold of Paul’s arm. Reuters published a copyrighted picture available on Yahoo News here.