Rick Perry

Here We Go Again: New Hatred By Evangelical Christian Pastors!

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It is a sad reality that many Evangelical Christian pastors have made a career out of promoting divisiveness and hate, in the name of their conservative values and the almighty dollar!

How else to explain why many of these pastors have continued to promote hatred toward President Barack Obama, including that he is a Muslim, born in Kenya, a Socialist, and out to undermine American values?

How else to explain a so called “unifying” pastor, Joel Osteen, who runs the largest megachurch in America in Houston Texas, on nationwide TV on CNN advocating homophobia, knowing full well that it is a major crisis in America, particularly for young gay men and women who are committing suicide because of bullying, and has no problem continuing to quote the Bible on this matter, in a distorted way? And then to learn that Joel Osteen, who inherited his father’s leadership of their church, dropped out of college and has NO ministerial training at a seminary, so therefore is, technically, a phony minister, who is very wealthy because of the contributions of his congregants, and of course, like all religious leaders, avoids personal income taxes?

How else to explain another Evangelical Christian pastor at the Values Voters Summit In Washington, DC, supposedly asked to introduce Texas Governor Rick Perry, declaring that Mormons are not Christians, but instead are a “cult”, an attack directed against former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, the frontrunner in the GOP Presidential race, and indirectly against the other Mormon in the race, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman?

It should not matter whether a candidate for President is a “good Christian”, as we have a belief in separation of church and state, and religion should no more be a barrier now than it was in 1960 when John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic to win the White House, after Al Smith, the earlier Catholic nominee in the 1928 Presidential Election, was soundly defeated because of his Catholicism. Of course, who were the leading critics of Smith and Kennedy? Evangelical Christians, who claim to be holier than thou!

It is clear that the same anti Mormon sentiments would be visited against a serious Jewish nominee in the future. These “good Christians” are excellent at promoting hate and division!

Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman should be judged for everything except their Mormon faith. Neither is out to promote or advocate their faith, anymore than Smith or Kennedy were, or a future Jewish nominee would! Why do Evangelical Christian pastors however feel they have the right to force their congregants to think their narrow minded way?

It is time for all of the non Mormon Presidential nominees to condemn this pastor and make it clear that religious bigotry of any kind is not acceptable, and will not be part of the GOP Presidential race from this day forward! But don’t bet on that happening!

Rick Perry’s Assault On FDR’s New Deal: Unconscionable!

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The last time that a major party Presidential candidate went after the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt with such zeal as Texas Governor Rick Parry has done in his recent book and during his presidential campaign was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential campaign, and anyone who knows political history knows that Goldwater suffered the worst percentage defeat ever to Lyndon B. Johnson, who went on to expand and improve on the New Deal with his Great Society.

Hopefully, the same scenario will happen if Rick Perry is Barack Obama’s opponent, and we will see Obama improve on Lyndon B Johnson, which he certainly has more than anyone since then, certainly more than Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton!

Perry not only has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme”, even though it has always paid out for 75 years, and is well funded to 2037, and only needs a little tinkering to sustain itself into the long range future, similar to what it received in the famous Ronald Reagan-Tip O’Neill deal of 1983.

Perry also criticizes in his book “Fed Up”, published last year, all of the government agencies created during the New Deal, including three public works agencies that created worthwhile jobs during the New Deal (the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Public Works Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration); the nation’s agency to watch over the stock market and Wall Street (the Securities and Exchange Commission); an agency which took the American South out of dire poverty and provided electricity, which private enterprise had not done (the Tennessee Valley Authority); an agency started by President Herbert Hoover to help keep business afloat during the Great Depression and continued by FDR (the Reconstruction Finance Corporation); an agency which helped keep farmers going during the worst times in agricultural history (the Agricultural Adjustment Administration); and also a denial by Perry that the New Deal lowered the unemployment rate, which in actual fact went from 12-13 million at the beginning of 1933 to a little over 6 million in 1939!

Perry has utilized misrepresentation and misconceptions, and pure lies and demagoguery, while forgetting his own poverty stricken past! Is there anything worse than pure hypocrisy and deception in the name of his corporate masters, who support his campaign for President?

The “Learned” Presidents: Men Of Great Intellect!

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In today’s America, we see glorification of presidential candidates who comes across as lacking in knowledge and insights, people who represent ignorance of history and science, who are seen as the “average American”, as if that is what we need in the White House! What else explains Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum and others who are constantly displaying their lack of intellect?

In the past, we had our share of ignorant Presidents, but we also had a great number of “learned” Presidents, one out of three, who made the office proud with their intellect and insights. It did not, of course, guarantee success in all of their activities as President, but we could feel satisfied that we had brilliant men who represented a model of what America should strive for: intellectual curiosity and inquiry and desire for learning, something looked down upon today, a very regrettable development.

So who are the “learned” Presidents?

John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
John Quincy Adams
James Garfield (more potentially, because of assassination within months of taking the oath of office)
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Herbert Hoover
Richard Nixon
Jimmy Carter
Bill Clinton
Barack Obama

The debate about the connection between intellect and success will go on, as it is well known that there is considerable debate about the effectiveness and success of Madison, Taft, Hoover, Nixon, and Carter, at the least. And many would debate Wilson and Clinton as well.

But this list demonstrates, if nothing else, that we have some “scholars” in the White House, and that we should want the “best and the brightest” in the Oval Office, to set a model for the nation and its future!

Rick Perry Family Hunting Camp Racial Slurs Disqualify Him To Be President!

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Texas Governor Rick Perry is now in the midst of a controversy regarding his family’s hunting camp, which had a racial slur on a rock at the entrance for many years, the most despicable slur possible–the N word–, and it has caused Herman Cain, the only African American candidate in the Republican race, to denounce him as insensitive on the race issue. That is a mild reaction, to say the least, but still telling!

In 2012, despite the reality that there are Americans who are racist and promote the race issue, particularly on President Obama, it is NOT acceptable to have such a candidate represent a major political party in a national campaign!

All it does is promote the “Old South” mentality that must be rooted out completely from national politics, as that is not the road to progress in the future, particularly in a nation becoming rapidly more racially diverse, and by 2040-2050 will see the white population as a minority in America!

It will be interesting to see if other Republican candidates, other than Herman Cain, will speak up and criticize Rick Perry on this. If they do not, then they lose all credibility as legitimate candidates for the Presidency of the United States!

This nation cannot afford to go backward on racial progress, and Rick Perry would be a reflection of the past on racial matters, and in many ways, the present in Texas for minorities who have faced discrimination despite their growing numbers.

The Flaws Of A Mitt Romney Presidential Candidacy

Ronald 1 Comment

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has many virtues, many positives, that should make him a model candidate for the White House, including:

1. Strong business background with Bain Capital and as head of the Salt Lake City Olympics Committee for 2002.
2. Promoted a health care plan in Massachusetts which is seen as a major success by many.
3. Bright, intelligent, photogenic candidate, with great family image, including his wife and five sons.
4. Knowledgeable about economic matters, and seen as Presidential caliber in many people’s minds.
5. Has presented good body language in debates and has greater potential to appeal to moderates, Independents, and conservative Democrats.

Despite all of the above, there are a long list of flaws that will make it difficult for Romney to win the GOP nomination for President, and if he does, to win the election over President Barack Obama. Among them are :

1. Romney comes across as a chameleon, a person who is constantly over the years changing his views on many issues, seen as originally a moderate and trying to paint himself as a conservative–therefore perceived as a phony candidate, and a “flip flopper”!
2. Romney was not well liked personally by his opponents in the 2008 Presidential race, particularly John McCain and Mike Huckabee, and is not even now well liked by the Bush clan and other Establishment Republicans.
3. Romney is not well regarded by evangelical Christians, a large group in primaries and caucuses, because of his Mormon faith, and one wonders could he win the “Bible Belt” South and Great Plains, areas usually Republican. but seeing Mormons as a cult, and not Christian!
4. All through the race for the GOP nomination, despite Romney showing the best ability in polls to compete with President Obama, there has been a constant search for an alternative, whether Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, and now Chris Christie, not a sign of much feeling of emotion or passionate feelings of love for Romney.
5. Romney has shown insensitivity toward average people, by joking that he is unemployed; by talking about his Cadillacs collection; and by having a project to increase the size of his home to a mansion at a time when many are losing their own homes. Being the richest candidate in the race may give him a money edge, but he comes across as not understanding the problems of the middle class!
6. Despite his recent improved debate performances, Romney still has an image of being stiff, uncomfortable in his own skin, not totally relaxed, and not truly knowing how to deal with irate questioners at rallies, and with strong criticism. It makes one wonder would he be able to work well with Congress, whether his own party or the opposition, with so little political experience, only one term as Governor, and thinking his lack of a career in politics is a plus, which it really is not!
7. Romney’s ability to get people out to vote for him is doubtful, since he does not evoke strong feelings of support, and his poll numbers are still seen as very soft.
8. Romney’s attempt to steer clear of the Tea Party Movement makes one wonder if he could ever work well with fellow Republicans, who in many cases would be much further to the right politically than he would feel comfortable being himself, once in office.
9. Can a candidate from the Northeast, the stronghold of Barack Obama, have any opportunity to defeat him in any scenario that would add up to 270 electoral votes? That seems highly doubtful, as in many ways, Romney comes across as somewhat distant in the same way as two past Massachusetts Democrats who ran for President had trouble overcoming–Michael Dukakis in 1988 and John Kerry in 2004. Those two who lost to father and son Bush did not face a man with the charisma and emotional feelings of support that Barack Obama has had, and even in bad times, still has to some extent today!
10. By coming out hard line against immigration reform that allows illegal immigrants and their children a path to citizenship, Romney, like other Republicans, is losing the future, as Hispanic population and voter participation is growing in the Southwest and across the nation, and they are not likely to throw support to a candidate who demeans them and treats them as not deserving of respect and empathy for their futures in America!

There are probably other points that could be made, but it is clear that Mitt Romney has major flaws in so many ways that his candidacy for President is going to require a lot of luck and good fortune for him to end up in the Oval Office!

Why Chris Christie Is Not Qualified To Be President!

Ronald 1 Comment

Now it turns out that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, despite constant statements that he is not interested in being President, and is not experienced enough yet to be President, is allowing himself to be courted by wealthy corporate and Wall Street executives to run for President, indicating that he is reconsidering!

What a terrible decision that would be, for so many reasons, including:

1. Chris Christie does not have the “fire in his belly”, which should be a requirement to run for President, and has no conception of what it means to announce for President, the work required and the sacrifices he would have to make to run for President, particularly at such a late date when Republican Presidential opponents, particularly Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, have big treasure chests and advisers and campaign structures all set up, while Christie has none.

2. Chrisitie is, as he himself said, not qualified to be President based on less than two years in high elective office, and could not run the Presidency in the manner that he has run the Governorship–like an authoritarian dictator who takes no prisoners! The Congress would not kneel to him as the state legislature may have done, and the powers of the New Jersey Governorship in some ways are far greater than the domestic authority of the Presidency!

3. Chris Christie has a horrible, bullyish personality, refuses to consult with his own state’s Democratic Senators and Congressmen, and treats critics publicly in a way no other politician does. It may humor some people who hear it, but it is actually totally unprofessional and unacceptable behavior, and Christie shows evidence of the need for anger management on a grand scale!

4. Chris Christie is no model for good health, being extremely obese, not acceptable considering the stresses that he would face in a campaign and in the White House! We may have had heavy Presidents, including Grover Cleveland and William Howard Taft before, but the Presidency was not the heavy duty, high stress job then, that it is now! He is no model for children, and already there is evidence that his bad health is a threat to his ability to do the job he has, having been forced to go to the hospital this summer for an asthma attack. And his problem with anger also undermines his health. This is not just the story of anyone being morbidly obese, but the story of the leader of the free world! He would need to set an example on losing weight, but that is not an easy thing to do in any case!

5. Christie’s personality and bluntness would undermine relations with other nations, and threaten peace in the world, as diplomacy implies the use of tact, not nastiness and confrontational attitudes! He has also shown no understanding of American foreign policy!

6. His treatment of labor unions, teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public servants demonstrates that he is not respectful of the sacrifices of people, and yet is willing to concede to corporate masters, including the Koch Brothers. This is not what we need to lead our nation in the future!

Governor Christie needs to gain more experience in office, open up his mind to new ideas, change his personality approach, and lose weight, before he seriously considers running for President. And if he is honest with himself, he would still realize that he is ill qualified in so many ways to be our Commander in Chief!

Let’s Give Rush Limbaugh What He Wants: A Lunatic Right Wing Tea Party Presidential Nominee!

Ronald 2 Comments

Now Rush Limbaugh has started to attack Chris Christie, the newest suitor for the GOP Presidential nomination, even though Christie has said he will not run!

Limbaugh criticizes the lack of social conservatism of Christie, his outspoken criticism on some hot button issues of the Tea Party Movement!

So now Limbaugh and others are faulting Christie, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Jon Huntsman, and ridiculing Ron Paul'[s libertarian stands, and have problems with Newt Gingrich’s past as well.

As a result, Limbaugh recommends the likes of Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum instead!

It is time to do what Limbaugh and other whackos want! NOMINATE Cain, Bachmann or Santorum! Give the extreme Right what they want, and it will kill them off for a generation, much like the nomination of Barry Goldwater in 1964 delayed their cause for a generation, and softened the stands on issues by the time Ronald Reagan won the Presidency in 1980!

Nominate one of these three, and it will be a massive victory for Barack Obama, and a repudiation of these loud mouths who care not a whit about doing harm to the nation and its future!

Rick Perry Attacked From The Right: How No GOP Candidate Can Please The Lunatic Fringe!

Ronald 2 Comments

Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to many like the ideal conservative Republican, except he isn’t!

This is further proof that NO ONE can ever fully satisfy the extreme Right Tea Party Movement, and that the Republican Party needs to tell the Tea Party Movement to go to hell in a hand basket!

Rick Perry is a horror to most sane people, what with his secession comments, his record on capital punishment, his attacks on the Obama Health Care Plan, his criticism of the Federal Reserve, his calling Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme”, and other outrageous statements.

But on two issues, he is correct: that the children of illegal immigrants, who are not responsible for being in America, should be given the same opportunity to in state tuition for a college education as children of Texas citizens, as long as they have been in the state for at least three years; and the decision to promote HPV vaccine for young girls in Texas, to avoid the danger of cervical cancer.

Perry has been vilified on these matters, and now has slipped in the latest Fox News Poll from the lead to number two behind Mitt Romney, but Romney should not sell his soul to the right wing, or it will also destroy him, and were he to win, his Presidency, as a captive of these nuts on the right!

The fact that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh are now bitterly attacking Rick Perry is actually a reason to promote sympathy for Perry, but not too much. It just demonstrates why the Republican Party is not the alternative to Barack Obama, if one is sane and believes in having a “heart”, something that Perry was attacked for, but something we need more of in America if we are going to have a future we wish to be proud of!

Sarah Palin’s Resentment Of Potential Presidential Rivals Gaining Attention: Mental Illness Demonstrating Itself!

Ronald 3 Comments

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin continues to hint that she is considering entrance into the GOP Presidential race, although she has taken no organizational steps to do so, and remains on the Fox News Channel payroll.

The woman has shown resentment if anyone gains attention other than her, although she claims to be insulted by those who follow her movements and statements and investigate her checkered past. She is ready to sue at any affront against her, playing the victim role, but also likes to “rain on the parade” of Republican Presidential candidates who might be her rivals, were she to enter.

While avoiding any work or preparation for a candidacy, which would require real efforts for debate performance, something she would wish to avoid at all costs, as it would reveal just how dumb and ignorant she really is, she is certainly willing to intervene when Mitt Romney is declaring his candidacy in New Hampshire; show resentment at Michele Bachmann being a female rival, so therefore making some sarcastic comments about her candidacy; speaking out at the time of Rick Perry’s announcement of candidacy in Texas; and calling Herman Cain “the flavor of the week” to degrade his straw poll performance last weekend in Florida. Now, yesterday, as Chris Christie is wooed to run, Sarah felt a need to speak up and take away attention from him!

In other words, any accomplishment or newsworthy moment for the major rivals, who have seen some success or have some support, demands her taking attention away from such person, competing in the news media for attention!

This woman is a mental case who needs to be repudiated, and invited to shut her mouth once and for all, as a unnecessary pest and naysayer in her party, who is bound to do everything to destroy any Republican who runs for President, because of her maniacal belief that only she could govern, but unwilling to do the work required, and offer her candidacy to the people of her party!

But a recent poll shows 60 percent of the nation wants her to go away, and it would be good if somehow, we could have her taken off the front page, by the news media choosing to ignore her completely, unless she actually DOES something other than talk!

Sarah will never run, as she would lose her “cash cow”, the gullible Americans who love her and fail to see that she is the most incompetent person the Republicans could possibly consider for President!

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie: Being Wooed As The Savior Of The Republican Party

Ronald 1 Comment

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in office less than two years, is being wooed by Wall Street Republicans and conservatives on talk radio and Fox News Channel as the savior of the Republican party, and being pressured to get into the Presidential race.

There has not been such a draft movement in the GOP since Dwight D. Eisenhower was successfully brought into the Presidential race in 1952.

But is Chris Christie another Dwight D. Eisenhower? Is he the “knight in shining armor”, or is he just the flavor of the month, a desperate attempt by Republicans to find a winning candidate who can unite the Tea Party Movement and Establishment Republicans, which no one else seems to be able to do?

After all the glamor is stripped from the excitement around Christie, is he the answer for the beleaguered GOP? The answer is NO, as despite what many might think, the odds on Christie winning the White House are extremely low!

What makes people in the party so excited about Christie?

1. He is very blunt and forceful in his language, but some would say overly confrontational and crude.

2. He attacks labor unions, which make Wall Street and big business thrilled.

3. He is the original “Bully” Governor, a model for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Snyder in Michigan, Rick Scott in Florida, and Paul LePage in Maine.

4. He attacks public education in favor of charter schools, which pleases many conservatives.

5. He promotes budget cuts, which ultimately means the promoting of cuts in state support of social services, a popular move with the right wing nationally.

But why is he a horrible choice for President?

1. His “in your face” personality is precisely what we do NOT need in the White House!

2. His anti education, anti teacher, anti union agenda would solidify the right wing agenda in other states and harm the nation’s future.

3. His personality would undermine American foreign policy, as he would antagonize even friendly nations with his pompous, aggressive manner.

4. While a federal prosecutor in his past, he has only been Governor of New Jersey for less than two years, giving him very little elected experience, far less than Barack Obama, who had been in elected office for twelve years in Illinois state government and the US Senate.

5. He would be a terrible choice on the basis of physical fitness and health, has obvious health issues including a recent asthmatic attack, and while it could be said that we had William Howard Taft and Grover Cleveland in the past, it would not be a positive to have a person of his girth in the White House.

While many would see Christie as the ideal choice, he would be a bad model for the nation’s future in so many ways, and might even flop, as Rick Perry seemingly has, once we and the party and the nation had a better look at him!

Christie is more realistic than most when he says he is not ready for the Presidency, so let’s take him at his word and stop wooing him to enter the race!