Rick Perry disgusts me

I try not to make it a habit of writing purely political posts but the new Rick Perry YouTube video threw me over the edge. If you like the video, you probably won’t like this post.

There is no shortage of reasons I don’t think Perry should be a presidential candidate for the Republican party. I don’t even think he should be the Governor of Texas. It’s not just because he’s a goof who embarrases most people from Texas, like myself, it’s the way he markets himself as a candidate.

For whatever reason, the loud, far right conservative politicians on the scene these days treat culture and intelligence as negative attributes. They forget that Christian law, much like Sharia law, is not United States law. They forget that smart people create solutions where others can’t. They forget a lot of things, many of which were their founding principles. I’m not talking about all Republicans, I’m talking about people like Rick Perry.

Continue reading

Anti-DADT Repeal Runs Over After Debate

Wow, and I thought the debate last night was eye-opening. We have already discussed here the remarkable reactions Republican candidates have been getting to things such as killing of criminals, “Yeah! Cheers! Horray!” and sick people who are uninsured, “Let him die!” My friends and I cringed when we heard these reactions during the primary debates.

Then, last night, Rick Santorum (just Google him) shared with the audience that he would like to re-instate ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, which was just repealed this week. Here’s how it played out. Be sure to read on to the outrageous poll after the break. Continue reading

And The Crowd Yells, “Let Him Die”

This comes to us care of Talking Points Memo and Think Progress‘s liveblog of the latest GOP presidential debate, the second to feature Rick Perry. This particular moment hits close to home for me. You might remember my attempts to pay for and get health insurance and where that got me.

In this moment, it is asked whether someone who is uninsured should be allowed to die or if the government should pick up where his lack of insurance and his bank account left off. The reaction from the Tea Party crowd is surprising, even for them. Below is the incident in question.

Ron Paul the doctor says a 30-year-old who has an accident and needs intensive health care should’ve planned ahead and is responsible for himself. When Blitzer asks if society should let that young man die, some in the crowd shout in approval. Tea Party audience members heard yelling: “Yeah!” “Let him die!”

I actually sort of like Ron Paul. I think his ideas are kind of crazy and his loathing of government a bit ironic but at least he has some ideas. This is more of a critique of the audience than Ron Paul though he sure didn’t challenge them.

And of course, Blitzer should have proposed the question again with someone like me who tried to get insurance, even paid for it for months and then was told he was uninsurable. What if I were the one in the hospital for six months? A twenty-something with all intentions of not getting a free ride.

Now, discuss!

UPDATE: Looks like Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson was right over a year ago when he said the Republican healthcare plan was, “Don’t get sick and if you do get sick, die quickly.” Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration and the hypothetical situation isn’t specific enough but it sure doesn’t help the argument for the Tea Party reaction last night.

Ok, so now discuss.

The West Wing Tackles the Debt Ceiling

If you’ve been paying attention to the news in any form, you know that Debtageddon is on the horizon. What’s Debtageddon? It’s the day we hit our debt ceiling, the day we can no longer borrow money as a country and coincidentally the day before my birthday.

Tonight the House of Representatives were unable to pass a vote to raise the debt ceiling. The deadline before we hit true crisis mode is August 3rd. After that, no one knows just how badly our economy will be affected. Michelle Bachman thinks everything will be fine, while economists everywhere else are sounding the alarm.

By the way, pretty sure this is just the Grand Old Party, aka the Republicans and John Boehner, trying to screw me out of a great birthday. You can look at it one of three ways.

  1. My birthday will be followed by the absolute financial crash of America and we will remember it as the day before the end.
  2. Or, if you’re an optimist, all that will happen but we will remember it as the day we no longer gave a damn and had one hell of a party!
  3. Unlikely option, they agree to raise the debt ceiling and August 3rd is uneventful.

Whatever happens, the following clip from the West Wing illustrates what is going on.

It’s scary how many times I have been able to look back at this show and go, oh yeah, that exact thing is happening right now. I have a conspiracy theory that, in an effort to stay relevant a decade after his show would be canceled, Aaron Sorkin traveled to the future. There (here) he ripped headlines from Reuters and brought them back to 1999.

Or perhaps the West Wing is so accurate because it has happened 74 times before…

The American Economy In Two Minutes

Robert Reich connects the dots on the economy; explains why the American economy is where it is.

Cause and Effect Politics

This post is not meant to be a definitive, journalistic, endeavor in reporting what happened today. It is instead an illustration of potential causes that lead to the tragic end of a Democratic representative.

A Democrat representative who was targeted with a gun sight on a website about “taking out” particular Democrats.  A site created by Sarah Palin‘s political action committee and an idea made popular by Sharron Angle who followed a comment on exercising “second amendment rights” with “[we need to] take Harry Reid out”

This is an example of what can/might happen when you play with fire. I’m not concerned with reasonable people, I’m concerned with the unstable people who take these gun rallies, tea bag parties, exclamations of revolutions and the like as gospel. I’m afraid of the people who think violence is a solution. Continue reading

Sally Kern – Hate-monger

I’m sure by now you have all read about Sally Kern’s hate speech against homosexuals and followers of Islam.  Here is a recording of the speech, a transcript c/o the BBC follows.

I cannot believe that she is getting away with this. It’s just incredible. Listen and then go to the Human Rights Campaign site to see what you can do.

[flv:Sally-Kern.flv 425 325]

Full transcript of a speech by Sally Kern on the “gay agenda” with a backhanded slap at Islam

The homosexual agenda [Loud snap] is destroying this nation. OK? It’s just a fact. [Volume increases] Not everybody’s lifestyle is equal, just like not all religions are equal.

You know, the very fact that I’m talking to you like this here today, puts me in jeopardy. OK? Uh and I’m not anti, I’m not gay-bashing, but according to God’s word that is not the right kind of lifestyle, it has deadly consequences for those people involved in it, they have more suicides, uh and they’re more discouraged, there’s more illness, their uh lifespans are shorter, you know?

It’s, it’s, it’s not a lifestyle that is good for this nation.

‘Matter of fact, studies show, that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades.

So it’s the death knell of this country.

I honestly think it’s the biggest threat even, that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat. OK?

Because what’s happening now, they’re going after er uh in schools – two year-olds!

You know why they’re trying to get early childhood education? They want to get our young children into the government schools so they can indoctrinate them! I taught school for close to twenty years and we’re not teaching facts and knowledge anymore folks, we’re teaching indoctrination. OK?

And they’re going after our young children, as young as two years of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is the acceptable lifestyle.

You know, gays are infiltrating city councils.

Do you know? Eureka Springs [Arkansas], anybody been there, for the [Great] Passion Play? [A “Creation Truth” production] OK, have you heard that the city council of Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays? OK?

There are some others. Uh, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Tacoma, Md.; Kensington, Md.; in Vermont, Oregon, West Palm Beach, Fla. and a lot of other places in Florida.

What’s happening? And they are winning elections. One of the things I deal with in our legislature, I tried to introduce a bill last year, that would notify parents, uh schools had to let parents know what clubs their students were involved in.

And the reason I did that bill, primarily, was this, we had the Gay-Straight Alliance coming into our schools.

Kids are getting involved in these groups, their lives are being ruined, their parents don’t know about it. So I introduced a bill that said you have to notify all clubs, and things. And one of my colleagues said, “Well, you know we don’t have a gay problem in my community, so that’s why I voted against that bill.”

Well you know what? To me that is so dumb. If you’ve got cancer or something in your little toe, do you say, Well you know I’m just gonna forget about it, ’cause the rest of you’s fine?

It spreads! OK?

And this, this stuff is deadly, and it’s spreading and it will destroy uh our young people, it will destroy this nation.