Showing posts tagged Perry

STRANGE PATRIOTS

arewepayingattention:

These three Republican Party candidates for president are displaying their patriotism in a way the media can immediately understand and disseminate.

Yet it’s a strange patriotism they effect.  They claim to love their country while despising its government.  They praise our liberty while advocating a virtual theocracy.  They represent a Party which has openly worked to make their country fail rather than see its duly elected president solve any of the problems they, in fact, left him.  They promise prosperity while demolishing the very things (government social programs, affordable college loans, pubic schools, labor unions, etc. ) that created America’s mass middle class in the first place.

For some of these “patriots,” Republican Party power matters more than the well-being of their country or its people.  For some, a mean-spirited God they have fashioned in their own image matters more.  For some, it’s both. 

Strange patriots, indeed.  And since two of these candidates have publicly flirted with secession, it begs of the question of why their brand of disloyalty doesn’t get called what it is — treason.

(Reblogged from blissandzen)

Nobody is illegal

squashed:

Let me get something out here: I believe that human life is both sacred and unique. Choose whatever bitterly divisive issue you like: capital punishment, abortion, health care, war. I’m pro-life.1 This means both that we should acknowledge and respect other humans and (as a general principle) avoid anything that devalues or dehumanizes others.

Mitt Romney crossed a line for me this morning when he lambasted Rick Willingham Perry’s past stance on “giving that in state tuition to illegals.” Romney, go home already. Nobody is illegal.

Maybe I shouldn’t pick on Romney. He’s not the only public figure to refer to people who lack a legal immigration status as “illegals.” I think it’s disgusting and dehumanizing to refer to anybody as if their very existence is a crime. It’s also misleading. Nearly half of those without legal status entered the country legally but overstayed a visa—which means a civil violation occurred (like speeding or not mowing your lawn in violation of a civil ordinance) occurred rather than a crime. Even illegal entry is a misdemeanor—putting it on par with consuming alcohol as a minor. Undocumented immigrants are patriotic and passionate enough to actually want to be here despite jerks like Romney. Calling them “illegals” is simply a way to make ourselves feel like they are insufficiently human to be treated with a modicum of decency.

  1. Yes, there are exceptions and nuances and conflicts and so forth that we could talk about for hours. No, I’m not going to adequately address capital punishment, abortion, health care, and war in this post. This is a post about language and immigration. ↩

(Reblogged from squashed)

Perry Tales: Rick Is Not Who He Says He Is

Even more damning, Perry’s Texas is not creating nearly enough jobs to keep up with its fast-growing population. Those 1.2 million new positions are 629,000 short of the jobs needed just to bring the state’s employment level back up to where it was in 2007. Some miracle.

Worse, probe even a millimeter into the million-jobs number that he is sprinkling around like fairy dust, and you’ll learn that Perry’s jobs are mostly “jobettes” that can’t sustain a family. They come with very low pay, no health care or, and no employment security, labor rights or upward mobility — many are only part-time and/or temporary positions.

Here’s a particularly revealing stat that the Perry pixies don’t want us to see: On his watch as governor, Texas added more minimum wage jobs than all the other 49 states combined. More than half a million Texans now work for $7.25 an hour or less. He can brag that he’s brought Texans down into a tie with Mississippi for the highest percentage of workers reduced to poverty pay.

Spreading even more fairy dust, Perry claims that his Texas Miracle is the result of him keeping the government out of the private sector’s way. But peek behind that ideological curtain, and you’ll find this startling fact: During Perry’s decade, the greatest job growth by far has come from the public sector, which has more than doubled the number of new jobs created by the private sector.

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One out of six employed Texans are now teachers, police officers, highway engineers, military personnel or other government workers — and many of these jobs were created with the federal money that Perry-the-candidate now loudly denounces. Indeed, he’s running around ranting about President Obama’s stimulus program, but he gladly accepted the third highest amount of stimulus funds taken by the 50 states. There’s his miracle.

oh dang another Perry post

leftish: “America is not broken. Washington, DC is broken. I promise you this - I’ll work every day to try and make Washington, DC as inconsequential in your life as I can.” ~ Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

leftish:

“America is not broken. Washington, DC is broken. I promise you this - I’ll work every day to try and make Washington, DC as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

~ Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

(Reblogged from leftish)
leftish: Some more of that DELICIOUS GOP HYPOCRISY. Nobody lies through their teeth “better” than a GOP Candidate!! Ah but SNAP and education — no need for those programs? No one in Texas needs education or food assistance. View high resolution

leftish:

Some more of that DELICIOUS GOP HYPOCRISY.

Nobody lies through their teeth “better” than a GOP Candidate!!

Ah but SNAP and education — no need for those programs? No one in Texas needs education or food assistance.

(Reblogged from leftish)
leftish: Calling the BP Oil Spill an “unpreventable Act of God” is one of the biggest pieces of bullshit TURD that I’ve heard Governor Perry spew yet. View high resolution

leftish:

Calling the BP Oil Spill an “unpreventable Act of God” is one of the biggest pieces of bullshit TURD that I’ve heard Governor Perry spew yet.

(Reblogged from leftish)

Rick Perry's College Transcript: A Lot Of Cs And Ds

As governor of Texas, Rick Perry has pursued a controversial agenda that would gut Texas’ vaunted public university system in favor of something that more closely resembles a business.

As the Washington Post reported on Thursday, professors have been ranked according to how profitable they were to the university. Previous reports suggested Perry wanted to treat students as “customers” and tie teacher bonuses to anonymous student evaluations.

One reason that might explain his hostility toward the system: He didn’t do very well in it. A source in Texas passed The Huffington Post Perry’s transcripts from his years at Texas A&M University. The future politician did not distinguish himself much in the classroom. While he later became a student leader, he had to get out of academic probation to do so. He rarely earned anything above a C in his courses — earning a C in U.S. History, a D in Shakespeare, and a D in the principles of economics. Perry got a C in gym.

emphasis mine