Author Archives: PEB
Perry supported Clinton’s healthcare plan?
Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential wannabe Reverend Ricky Perry is calling ObamaCare “the closest this country has ever come to outright socialism” and in his political manifesto, Fed Up Ricky claimed the individual mandate was, “a total outrage;” he’s also declared if – God forbid – he was elected President he would use an executive order to repeal or block as much of ObamaCare as he possibly can.
This is all very interesting, but during the Clinton presidency Ricky wrote a letter to First Lady Hillary Clinton saying, “I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are most commendable.”
Ricky also asked Clinton to “give particular attention to the needs of the nation’s farmers, ranchers, agriculture workers, and other members of rural communities,” noting that many of them were uninsured and faced shortages of healthcare services. “Again,” Perry wrote in conclusion, “your efforts are worthy…. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance.”
Perry spokesman Dave Carney defended the Reverend’s letter stating, “You need to read the letter. He praised her efforts in trying to tackle the issue and urged her not to overlook rural Americans. The letter was at the onset of her efforts before she proposed anything. No one could have imagined the horrible monstrosity she cooked up, in fact not to be outdone until ObamaCare years later.”
Carney needs to go back and read history about the 1992 campaign, if he did he would discover that then candidate Clinton was not shy on pushing for an individual mandate, a single payer program; so, either Carney is ignorant of the facts or he’s a liar. Perry knew full well what kind of healthcare program Hillary Clinton would be looking to implement.
Ricky however is also pleading the case of ignorance telling Sean Hannity he was clueless as to what the ultimate outcome of Clinton’s healthcare task force was, “I didn’t want them collectively to overlook a very important constituency. I had no idea that was going to be the end product. What I thought they were truly going to work towards was trying to reform healthcare, and we had no idea, and then now we’ve got ObamaCare.”
Reverend Perry – like his spokesman – is either ignorant to facts of history or he’s a bald faced liar; I think it’s the latter.
Perry’s call for rain brings fire to Texas?
On 21 Apr 11, Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential aspirant, the Reverend Ricky Perry issued an official “Proclamation for Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas”; isn’t it interesting that since that gubernatorial edict was issued drought stricken Texas has received little to no appreciable rain, while Tropical Storm Lee dropped major rain in the neighboring state of Louisiana. Adding insult to injury, winds from Lee have fanned wildfires across Texas.
Clearly, the Lord doesn’t recognize Reverend Ricky’s authority to issue proclamations for days of prayer in His name.
Maybe He wasn’t happy with the company Ricky kept at his prayer fest?
Maybe Perry should have asked Romney or Huntsman to issue the proclamation?
Maybe God’s pointing out there’s a clearly defined separation between Church and State in America and politicians shouldn’t blur the lines to score political points prior to jumping into a presidential race?
Cheney’s Still Justifying Torture V 2.0?
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Former Vice President Dick Cheney says there’s no contradiction in advocating harsh interrogation tactics against suspected U.S. enemies and opposing those practices when used against American citizens.
Excuse me? Cheney is insane; anyone who thinks the United States can torture prisoners and then complain when someone tortures Americans is certifiable. This is one of the biggest reasons – up until the dip stick brothers took office aka Bush/Cheney – why American personnel didn’t torture prisoners, along with the fact it’s in violation of U.S. and International laws; such as the Geneva Convention, of which the U.S. is a signatory. Plus, WE’RE THE GOOD GUYS! We don’t torture people!
Cheney was asked about a hypothetical case in which Iran would decide to use water boarding on an American suspected of spying.
Cheney replies, “I think we would object on the grounds that we have obligations to our citizens.”
And how far would any of our complaints go now? Absolutely no where because Cheney and Company thought it was a great idea; of course what would you expect from someone who was too busy collecting deferments to ever serve in uniform?
Cheney was asked on NBC’s “Today” show if he was embracing a double-standard, he said, “These are not American citizens.”
Again, Cheney has proven he’s insane. IT’S IN VIOLATION OF THE FRICKING GENEVA CONVENTION MORON! I – and countless others who currently wear, or have worn, our country’s uniforms – used to be able to proudly say, “American soldiers don’t torture,” but we can’t say it anymore. Now the best we can say is, “Currently, American soldiers don’t torture”.
In the interview, Cheney also conceded he’d been a lightning rod for criticism during the Bush administration. “I’m Darth Vader,” he said.
News flash Skippy, Darth Vader wasn’t the hero, he brought countless suffering upon millions and was the epitome of evil – oh wait, that describes you perfectly; but hold on; you can’t be Darth Vader because he served in uniform, and actually fought for his country, he didn’t seek countless deferments; maybe you can be Darth Obtusus?
It’s understood this is probably Obtusus’ last go round, his last attempt to set the record straight, to try to justify why he was “evil”; I know, “it’s all because he loves his country so darned much”. Unfortunately for Lord Obtusus, I don’t think his explanation is playing very well to anyone who doesn’t watch FOX – and I’m pretty sure that channel isn’t watched in heaven.
The rats begin to leave the sinking ship?
Just when it appeared her presidential aspirations were heading into the historical dust bin – turns out they were; Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential contender Michele “Krazy” Bachmann has lost her campaign chief, along with his close deputy, in a campaign shake-up according to the Associated Press (AP) that Krazy’s aides are trying to downplay.
Where have we seen this scenario before? Oh yeah, when the Newt’s staff abandoned ship; clearly Krazy’s staff has finally figured it all out – she doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in south Texas of ever being nominated, much less of actually becoming the president.
Citing “health reasons”, veteran GOTP strategist Ed Rollins stepped down as Krazy’s campaign manager.
“In less than 50 days and with fewer resources than other campaigns, Ed was the architect that led our campaign to a historic victory in Iowa,” Bachmann said in a statement released late Monday, pointing to her win in the Ames Straw Poll last month. “I am grateful for his guidance and leadership, and fortunate to retain his valuable advice even though his health no longer permits him to oversee the day-to-day operations of the campaign.”
Speaking to CNN, Rollins said the front-runners were now Mittens and Reverend Ricky. He said Ricky’s late entry into the race slowed Bachmann’s buzz and fundraising; which was his cue to make a hasty exit to the role of “advisor”, meaning his finger prints won’t be on the campaign’s body when it’s thrown into the ditch in the next few months.
“I think legitimately it’s a Romney-Perry race,” he said. “I think she’s the third candidate at this point in time – which is way different and better than we’d thought when we started this thing – and she’s very much in this thing.”
Rollins continued, “I have great affection for her. I’ll do everything I can to help her. It’s still very much the team I put in place. I just don’t have the endurance to go 12-, 14-hour days seven days a week anymore.”
No doubt wanting to add he couldn’t take the non-stop gaffs and back peddling every time Krazy opened her mouth.
According to the AP, “Bachmann, who won election to Congress in 2006 and was a leader of tea partyers on Capitol Hill, had been making great strides in her presidential bid. Her strong showing in debates and forums lent her credibility, and her win in the key early test vote in Ames, Iowa, showed she was serious about building a campaign organization.”
First, the Iowa straw poll doesn’t mean jack; Ron Paul won it the previous times and he was never a serious contender for the candidacy; and second, Iowans obviously have a fetish for crack-pot conservatives and Krazy is the latest fad.
Krazy is of course no stranger to turnover. Her congressional staff has been a non-stop revolving door with no less than six chiefs of staff in four years, five press secretaries, five legislative directors and three communications directors.
It’s a dizzying thing and leads one to ask, “What’s the matter with Michele”? Well, besides the fact she’s insane?
Reportedly some former staffers have complained about Krazy’s style; saying if you question her decisions it draws immediate suspicions of disloyalty and that she insists on being involved in even the smallest details.
Krazy says her never ending staff changes are nothing more than “growing pains” in an office that “moves at a fast rate of speed.”
That or some people just don’t function well as an extra in a Marx Brothers’ movie – no insult to the Marx Brothers intended – and they couldn’t function in her Capitol Hill version of Romper Room.
Krazy has never been a serious contender, and she never will be; flashes of lucid moments in the midst of an otherwise lake covered in the white caps of madness does not a good ruler make – just look at King George III. Hence, it won’t be long before we bid adieu to Krazy, and she is sent packing back to her shabby little Congressional office making occasional appearances on whatever cable news channel (FOX) is looking for some lunatic to spice up its content.
Mittens offers his economic plan?
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has released his own economic plan in an attempt to upstage President Obama’s speech on Thursday.
Mittens is reportedly calling for lowering the corporate tax rate and eliminating capital gains taxes as part of a plan to try to lift the struggling economy and create jobs; he allegedly has some detailing 59 specific proposals aimed at fixing the nation’s stubbornly high unemployment rate, now at 9.1.
“At best, government can provide a framework in which economic growth can occur. All too often, however, government gets in the way,” Mittens wrote Tuesday in an opinion piece in USA Today previewing his 160-page plan. “The past three years of unparalleled government expansion have retaught that lesson all too well.”
Mitten’s plan calls for lowering the tax rate for corporations currently 35 percent, allegedly to encourage more companies to keep profits in the U.S.; Mittens also wants to eliminate taxes on interest, capital gains and dividends, all “aimed at middle-class Americans as a way to spur investment among individuals”.
Gee, that’s awfully nice, but very few middle-class Americans actually pay that tax; and here’s Mittens calling for lower corporate taxes just a few weeks after declaring “Corporations are people.”
Caught up in the whole Tea Party idea of “if something cost more money you have to offset it with a cut” Mittens is proposing steps he says will help ensure new regulations at government agencies don’t cost money. If a new set of rules raises costs for businesses, Mittens would require that a different set of regulations be eliminated.
So, if a new regulation is implemented by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) costing airlines additional money, under Mitten’s proposal the FAA would have to drop a different regulation – or regulations – equally the same amount of monies in savings? First off, government is not a business, and secondly if it were and Mittens was president he’d chop it up and auction it off to the highest bidder the same way he did to corporations he purchased.
“I have spent most of my career in the private sector starting new businesses and turning around ailing ones. Unlike career politicians who’ve never met a payroll, I know why jobs come and go,” Mittens mewed in USA Today.
Well, not entirely true, in fact not true at all; Romney is a political animal, born and raised in a political family; daddy was a governor who ran for president, mommy ran for the U.S. Senate; Mittens first entered the political gene pool in his unsuccessful run in Massachusetts against Senator Ted Kennedy – a race where Mittens actually was very liberal – in 1994; he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 spending $6.3 million of his own money on the race, he only served one term having used his office as a spring board into national politics and his desire to run for the presidency, which he first attempted in 2008 when he lost to John McCain. Mittens is not the “non-politician” he’s trying to portray.
On top of everything else Mittens rolls out the same old tired GOTP economic plan of cutting taxes for the wealthy, and giving additional tax breaks to his newly christened “people” the corporations of America. After a decade of tax cuts, someone needs to ask, “Where’s the jobs”? Mitten’s is smoke and mirrors designed to make him look presidential without supplying anything fresh, bold or energizing.
President calls on do nothing Congress to get to work
- Original photo by Paul Sancya/AP
According to the Associated Press (AP) President Obama used a boisterous Labor Day rally to put the congressional Republican Tea Party (GOTP) on the spot, challenging it to place the country’s interests above all else and vote to create jobs and put the economy back on a path toward growth. “Show us what you’ve got,” he said.
The President said roads and bridges nationwide need rebuilding and more than 1 million unemployed construction workers are itching to “get dirty” making the repairs.
His message was that the GOTP Congress is an obstacle to getting that work done.
And judging by the record number of filibusters in the Senate brought by the GOTP minority and by the total lack of any legislation aimed at creating jobs from the GOTP controlled House he’s right. Of course the GOTP House had time to introduce more than 100 odd bills dealing with limiting abortion, and it also managed to hold the nation’s economy hostage during the recent debt ceiling debacle, but hey, it’s tough selling your soul to the uber-right wing.
“I’m going to propose ways to put America back to work that both parties can agree to, because I still believe both parties can work together to solve our problems,” Obama said at an annual Labor Day rally sponsored by the Detroit-area AFL-CIO. “Given the urgency of this moment, given the hardship that many people are facing, folks have got to get together. But we’re not going to wait for them.”
“We’re going to see if we’ve got some straight shooters in Congress. We’re going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party,” he said.
Well, considering its track record thus far, that’s not bloody likely, but if the President can continue to paint the GOTP as roadblocks on the country’s road to recovery he may just win, and win big, including taking the House back and increasing the Democratic lead in the Senate.
The President also wants pending trade deals passed to open new markets for U.S. goods; he wants the GOTP to prove it’ll fight as hard to cut taxes for the middle class as it does for profitable oil companies and the wealthiest Americans.
OK, now that’s just crazy talk; there’s no way the GOTP will ever side with the Middle Class, and by its track record it doesn’t look like the GOTP wants a Middle Class, it wants the wealthy and the serfs just like when the Constitution was signed. That’s the America they want to take us back to, the America before progressives like Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt got a hold of it.
“The time for Washington games is over. The time for action is now,” the President told a supportive union crowd that Detroit police said was in the thousands. The AP reported the President’s speech was given at a General Motors Corp. parking lot in the shadow of the automaker’s headquarters building had the sound and feel of a campaign event, with the union audience breaking into chants of “Four More Years” throughout the president’s 25-minute speech.
According to the AP, aides say the President will mount a fall campaign centered on the economy, unveiling different elements of his agenda heading into 2012. If Republicans reject his ideas, the White House wants to use the megaphone of his presidency to enlist the public as an ally, pressure Congress and make the case for his re-election.
The President needs to do exactly that, he needs to use the bully pulpit of the White House and force the GOTP on the defensive. He needs push and push hard and not let up until the House is restored to a Democratic majority, and the Democratic majority in the Senate is enlarged and then he needs to push for the kind of reform the country badly needs including tax increases on the so-called job creators who have been suckling off the country long enough. There’s been a decade of tax breaks, where’s the jobs?
Is Bachmann anti-Catholic?
Texas Governor, and Republican Tea Party (GOTP) hopeful Reverend Ricky Perry is an uber-conservative evangelical Christian, as is Michelle “Krazy” Bachmann. What’s the big deal? Well, there’s a little tradition – as proscribed in the Bill of Rights and eloquently explained by Thomas Jefferson – we have here in the United States known as the separation of Church and State.
What’s alarming about the two “evangelical” candidates is that the evangelical faith believes Mormons – such as Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman – and Catholics; particularly Roman Catholics – like Marco Rubio – aren’t Christian. In fact some evangelicals call the Pope anti-Christ.
So far, Rev Ricky hasn’t had to face scrutiny over his “faith”, but Krazy hasn’t fared as well, of course when you wear your religion on your sleeve and make comments like hurricane Irene and a recent earthquake were God’s judgments on DC, well you’re going to get asked questions.
For instance, during a recent GOTP debate Bachmann was asked to explain a statement she made during her 2006 congressional campaign when she said she submits to the authority of her husband, and she was asked – quite correctly – to explain whether, as president, she would submit to her husband’s authority. Krazy replied that to her, submission means that she and her husband respect each other.
Of course, that’s not what “submission” means; in fact in no definition of the word does it come even remotely close to meaning equal, or “respect for each other”; it’s the oft repeated mistake of the far-right candidates thinking they can say whatever they want to whatever audience and that no one will ever remember or dare question them about it.
But wait, that’s not all, it seems various news agencies have recently reported Bachmann’s former church, which she left right before announcing her candidacy; the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod said on its website that the papacy is the anti-Christ. Now, while most Lutherans – such as the Lutheran World Federation – have dropped any hint of doctrinal condemnation, Krazy’s group – the Wisconsin Synod – has not.
Bachmann has insisted she was not anti-Catholic. But wait just a minute; President Obama was practically crucified for his association with the Rev Jeremiah Wright, with conservative talking heads – Limbaugh, Hannity et al – decrying how if Wright gave allegedly anti-American sermons in his meetings that had to have rubbed off on candidate Obama; and extending that same logic, if Krazy’s congregation was anti-Catholic was – and maybe is – she not anti-Catholic as well?
Or is this another case of uber-conservative Christian candidates thinking they can have their cake and eat it too? We’ll condemn President Obama by association, but not Bachmann? And when will anyone start questioning Perry’s ties to so-called “Christian” groups who are vehemently anti-Gay as well as anti-Mormon, anti-Islam, anti-Jew and anti-Catholic? Does America really need an uber-conservative evangelical Christian in the White House?
Joseph Smith Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) would no doubt be very uncomfortable with such an idea as he once proclaimed, “We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered (in the current 2012 case, evangelical Christians) and another proscribed in its spiritual privileges (everyone else), and the individual rights of its members, as citizens, denied.”
There’s little doubt that an evangelical dominated America would be an America where the rights of other faiths – particularly Islam – would be restricted, and certainly all other faiths would similarly find themselves on the outside looking in; more so, it will little serve America to have someone as President who is “submissive” to her husband, nor to have another far-right Texas Christian claiming to be doing God’s will as he bombs another Islamic nation. A candidate who subscribes to any faith that belittles or condemns other faiths does not belong in the Oval Office – period.
It was a metaphor?
The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential aspirant Michele “Krazy” Bachmann has apparently changed her mind, yet again, for her controversial statement about Hurricane Irene and the earthquake that rocked the East Coast a few weeks ago.
While speaking to group recently in Florida, Krazy said that the natural disasters were messages from God warning politicians to take heed of small-government conservatives.
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?'” she said.
“Listen to the American people, because the American people are roaring right now,” Krazy continued. “They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
Shortly after having made her biblical statement she attempted to dismiss it, saying it was a joke. “Of course, I was being humorous when I said that. It would be absurd to think it was anything else,” Krazy said.
But this morning, when asked about it again during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” she said it was a “metaphor.”
“Obviously, I was speaking metaphorically,” Krazy told host Bob Schieffer. “That was clear to the audience. It was clear to me.”
“The American people have been desperately trying to get the president’s attention, and he’s not paying attention,” she said. “They’re trying to get the president’s attention, and that was the metaphor I was making.”
Schieffer reportedly asked Krazy whether she believes “God uses weather to send people messages.”
“I believe in God. I’m not ashamed to say that I believe in God. I’m a woman of faith and a woman of prayer, but the comment that I made right then was a metaphor. That was very simply what I was doing,” she replied.
Well, now isn’t that interesting. When she said it – it didn’t sound like a metaphor, and it didn’t sound like a joke, it sounded like an uber-right wing evangelical Christian claiming God was punishing people. Clearly it’s not something you “joke” about, so Krazy had to back away from that remark, but it’s taken her more than a week to decide it was a metaphor. Who’d have thought she’d know what a metaphor was? But perhaps she’s right, perhaps the earthquake and hurricane is a metaphor, maybe it’s a metaphor of her campaign, or rather what’s happening to her campaign, as in it’s quickly becoming a disaster?
Bachmann is quickly falling from grace, and her continued screw ups have proven she’s not ready for prime time, and that it’s time to think about doing other things. It’s highly doubtful she’d be the VP pick since the GOTP has tried the “let’s nominate a crazy uber-conservative woman who’s not too bright” stick before and it didn’t play too well. She’s done, everyone but Michelle Bachmann knows it, and it’s time for her to pack it in.
The Liberty Tree 
