Rick Perry & The Walrus
August 17, 2011
There are a number of very positive things that can be said about Rick Perry. He is pretty, he has great hair, and he is an inspiring orator.
Yet, the Walrus has some nagging concerns about Governor Perry.
At a public event in Bedford, New Hampshire on August 17, Texas Gov. Rick Perry reaffirmed his view that global warming is an unproven scientific theory that has been promoted by scientists who have “manipulated data,” and Perry further stated that programs intended to limit climate change are costing our nation “billions if not trillions” of dollars that he believes could be better spent elsewhere.
“We are seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change,” Perry told an audience of several hundred voters, business leaders and local officials who gathered for a breakfast in Bedford. “Yes, our climate has changed — they’ve been changing ever since the Earth was formed.”
Perry added that the cost of implementing what he called “anti-carbon programs” is billions of dollars: “I don’t think, from my perspective, that I want America to be engaged in spending that much money on what is still a scientific theory that hasn’t been proven, and from my perspective is more and more being put into question.”
Perry expressed his skepticism about global warming during his debut at the Politics & Eggs series, a virtually mandatory event for presidential candidates in the state that holds the first primary each election cycle.
In past appearances, Perry has also opined on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. “I believe that we were created by this all-powerful supreme being and how we got to today versus what we look like thousands of years ago, I think there’s enough holes in the theory of evolution to, you know, say there are some holes in that theory.”
Some have suggested that Perry is also a founding member of the Flat Earth Society, although I can find no strong evidence of that.
In his presidential platform, Perry seems to be focused on the Texas record of job creation during the national economic downturn. In fact, Texas has created plenty of jobs, although that seems to be related to a combination of rising oil prices, which created thousands of jobs in the oil and gas industries, and the shift from Louisiana as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Perry tells us that his low-tax, low-regulation approach to business is a driving force to economic success. They also say that in Mexico and in China where manufacturing costs are clearly lower than in the U.S.
What Perry neglects to mention is that Texas really is a humanitarian cesspool.
It has the fourth-highest poverty rate of any state. In 2010, it tied with Mississippi for the highest percentage of workers in minimum-wage jobs. It is first in the U.S. for adults without high school diplomas. Twenty-six percent of Texans have no health insurance — the highest percentage of medically uninsured residents of any state. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of children who lack medical insurance. Texas employers are at the forefront in our nation of not providing insurance to their workers.
If Rick Perry is a legitimate candidate for president of the USA, we are in deep, deep trouble, folks.
Juvenile Delinquents in the Congress
August 4, 2011
Last week, I was alarmed and angry at some of our elected representatives in the Congress as they played Russian Roulette with our economy.
This week, I am stunned.
The partisan shenanigans that have transpired in the 112th Congress is just Un-American and unacceptable.
As the entire world watches – in real time, thanks to advanced technology – a group of newly elected individuals in the House of Representatives are behaving badly.
They remind me of unchaperoned adolescent hooligans at their first spring break.
But this is no harmless teenage fun.
This is the real thing.
The credit rating agencies have put the world on notice that they have serious concerns about our Nation’s credit rating.
Today, the domestic equities market dropped about 4%, wiping out nearly $9.3 Trillion of our nation’s private worth.
Meanwhile, our elected officials are on leave from Washington enjoying their August recess, no doubt oblivious to the pain they have caused to regular citizens like you and me.
I’m stunned? Yes, and I’m furious!
The Debt Deal
August 2, 2011
It’s official. The House, The Senate and The White House have come to common ground.
The legislation signed into law today by Pres. Obama is basically a big wet steaming pile of horse manure (“BWSPOHM”).
The popular media — and some right wing bigots — are already slamming Obama for “blinking” and for his “lack of leadership.”
The real story is that it takes a real leader to sign a bill like this knowing full well that it is a BWSPOHM.
And, in the end, even the best leader who ever graced the face of our earth can’t be expected to get a herd of wild recalcitrant donkeys to do anything other than to satisfy their own desires.
I heard it said somewhere, “We can’t allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington’s political warfare”.
Let’s hope the Tea Party Jihadists find a way to mellow out and address our financial problems in a rational and comprehensive way…
The Silent Majority
August 1, 2011
Something I heard or read today created a connection in my head between “The Silent Majority” and “The Tea Party”
Silent Majority?
I think from the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s — started with President Nixon — and continued to fester well into the 1990’s thanks to Pat Buchanan and some of his ultra-conservative friends and supporters.
Buchanan delivered a keynote address at the 1992 Republican National Convention, which became known as the culture war speech, in which he described “a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America.” In the speech, he said of Bill and Hillary Clinton: “The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units — that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God’s country.”
However you slice it, the Tea Party is nothing new.
Back in the day, they wore white sheets, burned the cross, and became the subject of a very haunting song by Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit”.
I remember when my Mother had a bumper sticker on her car that said, “The Silent Majority is Neither.”
I thought maybe she was a communist or something.
Fast forward 40 years: Here I am! (not a communist, but maybe a centrist?)
Van Jones (formerly the senior advisor to Pres. Obama for ‘Green Jobs”) is now the spokesperson for the American Dream Movement.
He has targeted the vanishing American middle class that he says is working harder than ever, yet is struggling to maintain its livelihood.
When I recently discovered this new movement, I concluded they are Anti-Tea Party, so I immediately signed up and made a modest contribution.
In the short term, I’m planning to haunt Mr. Jones and American Dream —- who knows? Maybe they can muster the REAL “silent majority” into getting vocal.
walrus51 