A Threat to America

The governor of my state, Rick Perry, has just put my President, Barack Obama, on the same footing as the great enemy of my country, Osama bin Laden.

From The Telegraph:

“Rick Perry has denounced President Barack Obama as ‘the greatest threat to our country’ and called for him to be replaced by a new commander-in-chief ‘who is passionate about America.’”

Excuse me?

Is it because President Obama ordered the execution of “the greatest threat to America,” Osama bin Laden, and it happened, so that leaves. . . The President as the second-greatest, and now because bin Laden is dead, “the greatest?”

Is that what is on the governor’s mind?

The governor then went on to say that veterans and servicemen would rather have their commander-in-chief be someone who once wore a military uniform. You know, like George W. Bush did when he served in the Texas Air National Guard. You know, that guy who had a swiftboating group defame a Vietnam War veteran. You know, John Kerry?

Perry stopped short of calling himself a war hero, I guess, so that counts for something. From what I recall, being an Air Force C-130 transport pilot was about as dangerous, and life-threatening as knitting. Being a C-130 transport pilot was not as exciting, perhaps, as getting your F-4 Phantom shot out from under you over Hanoi, as the previous GOP candidate got to do, but it does get you on the road to being a Southwest Airlines pilot, something Perry nearly found himself doing but abandoned through a trick of fate and a rain storm.

And now, because that never happened, we have Rick Perry shooting coyotes inside Austin city limits, and shooting his mouth off to please mindless bat guano crazy ultra-conservatives.

Who Let the Doggett Out?

I think the Austin American-Statesman is making an attempt at wry humor in its headline “Doggett emerges as critic of Perry as president.” An emergent person, one could argue, is someone who might be unexpected. That’s the way I see it anyway.

For Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett to “emerge” as a critic of Rick Perry as president, one could also expect that Barack Obama might emerge as a critic of the Republican majority in congress.

But the article goes on to say that Congressman Doggett will go on Dylan Ratigan’s show today on MSNBC and call out the mythical madness of “The Texas Miracle,” and just as I read that, the TV, which is on and tuned to MSNBC in the other room, segued into that very appearance by Doggett.

And I was all ears.

Ratigan fed Congressman Doggett the lines he needed, and he scored big points with graphics that, quite frankly, upset me because I know the truth of them. The only downside to the interview was when one Ratigan panelist, the inaptly named Crystal Ball, cited the employment “facts” that Rick Perry puts out there like it is Gospel, and Doggett, perhaps not wanting to fling the poor vacuous woman to the wolves, went a little soft on his reply.

This is something we cannot do. Most of Americans don’t know Rick Perry at all. So really, he can make up any old fact he wants, repeat it over and over, and Americans will accept it simply because they don’t know this guy. They don’t know that truth and lies are all in the same category with this guy.

They. Don’t. Know.

So next time you hear someone quote something about The Texas Miracle be fierce in your reply. Don’t let this myth become Perry’s ticket to the White House.

Texans need to speak up.

And really, as an aside, there is no one I’d rather have running against Barack Obama next year than Rick Perry. The man is a disaster waiting to happen. The trouble is, and I’ve heard this from more than one source, people keep underestimating Rick Perry.

And Rick Perry keeps winning elections.

Rick Perry: The New Kid on the Block

Oh I can hardly wait. It is becoming more and more apparent that Texas’ governor, Rick Perry, is in the presidential race – all except in name at least. The Texas Tribune has a new app called PerryTracker 2, showing how Rick Perry has been moving around the country and where he plans to go in the future.

No, the man is running.

This should be fun to watch considering how much Rick Perry’s politics and public statements so widely vary from mainstream public opinion.

Fun. Fun. Fun.

For instance, for the average voter to accept Rick Perry as his or her candidate of choice they will have to agree with Perry that:

Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme

Possession and sales of marijuana should be not be legalized but this is completely a state decision. What’s good in California doesn’t fly in Texas.

It is unconstitutional for the federal government to collect taxes to fund Medicare.

Big Government demands to vaccinate 11-year old girls against Human Papilloma Virus or HPV is perfectly OK and so is a constitutional amendment forbidding gay unions.

You see, most of these issues are red meat issues among the rightwing of the Republican Party and Teabaggers.  Perry should do well among primary voters, the majority of whom are the rightwing and Teabaggers. But facing Barack Obama in the Fall of 2012 with this agenda should be more challenging.

And Fun. Fun. Fun.

Congressman Flake for President

The latest entrant in the ever-widening field of Leprechauns who want to run against Barack Obama next year just got wider, and more diminished, with the official announcement by Michele “Flake” Bachmann that she was in it.

This just a day after Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked her whether or not she was a flake.

And I guess since she is spending so much time in Iowa these days, one would wonder if that moniker might be amended to “corn flake.”

And no, I don’t think Michele Bachmann is a flake. Bi-polar maybe, but not a flake.

No, really, bi-polar. She is really two different people. She is the cool rational woman who speaks calmly in a low-toned voice, and then she is the wild-eyed woman with the wild ideas who screeches them in a voice that is a full octave higher in pitch.

I was busily assembling a video collage to prove my point when I found that TPM had already done my job for me. Listen to Michele Bachman tell an interviewer on October 19, 2008 in a calm sure voice that she never said Barack Obama was anti-American and then 2 days earlier caught on tape saying that she absolutely thinks Barack Obama may have anti-American views. This time with wide eyes and a voice a full octave higher and 20 decibels louder.

Now you could say that Bachmann was being truthful in that she denied saying that Barack Obama was anti-American because she said that she absolutely thought that he may be anti-American. You could say that and have a point.

A very fine point that fails the BS test.

A Man’s Got to Know His Limitations

That’s a quote from the last scene of a Harry Callaghan movie called “Magnum Force.” Its translation goes something like don’t attempt something you know you haven’t the skills to do a proper job. It’s something Mitt Romney should become aware of if he is to make it as a presidential candidate.

Mitt Romney has no sense of humor at all. He should become aware of that fact. Because when Mitt Romney thinks up a joke all by himself, and then utters it, chances are it will come out wrong.

Like the other day when Romney was sitting in a Florida coffee shop talking to people who are unemployed, listening to their strategies for getting back to work, when he suddenly interjects “I should tell my story. I am also unemployed.”

Now they all seemed to laugh, but then you only have to take a second and see what actually just transpired and you have to conclude that Mitt Romney is either an asocial geek, or has absolutely no sense of humor.

A rich guy telling a bunch of unemployed middle class workers that he is also unemployed pretty much belittles their unemployed plight. Romney doesn’t have to work another day in his life. Neither do his kids for that matter. For these middle class people, unemployment has far greater consequences.

So Mitt Romney simply has to learn about his own limitations, and one of them is that he has no sense of humor. This will be crucial should he get the nomination and has to come up with a running mate. A running mate who will need a well-developed sense of humor. Then they can operate like Martin and Lewis, the Veep tells the jokes and he gets the girl.

Are You Better Off Than You Were 2 Years Ago?

Remember this famous concluding speech that Ronald Reagan delivered in his last debate with President Jimmy Carter? Many have claimed that this speech won Reagan the election.

It probably didn’t help that the inflation rate was high, mortgage interest rates were skyrocketing upward and Iranians were parading American hostages in front of cameras every day after their supposed rescuers crashed and burned in the Iranian desert.

So midway through President Obama’s term everyone is wondering who will utter those words in the 2012 election, and when.

So I thought about it some and have come to the surprising conclusion that, yes, I am better off than I was 2 years ago when Barack Obama inherited 2 wars and the worst economic downturn since 1929.

And no, I’m not.

I’m not better off than I was 2 years ago because the Republican economic policies trashed out my 401K. I’m not better of than I was 2 years ago because the 2010 elections brought a TEA Party-tinged Republican super-majority to Austin and they spent 140 days taking away my rights, and continue to vote to take away my salary and make it necessary for me to do more with less support in the classroom.

All of the reasons I am not better off than I was 2 years ago can be laid right at the feet of Teapublicans (Teabaggers and Republicans).

But all of the reasons that I am better off than I was 2 years ago are very much because of what Democrats have done.

Thanks to the Affordable Healthcare Act I can now consider retirement in a couple of years because I will be able to enroll in the affordable healthcare plans available at the exchanges.

Thanks to the bailouts the economy didn’t implode and my 401K somewhat recovered. That I still have a job is very probably because of the Obama Administration and the slim majority Democrats hold in the Senate.

So when you hear those words uttered by whoever winds up with the task of unseating the smartest president we’ve had since Jack Kennedy –and you will most definitely hear those words - do an honest evaluation, remembering not only what losses you suffered, and what gains you enjoyed, but who furnished what.

Ahmona Thank About It . . .

That is what Governor Rick Perry of Texas said in reply to a reporter’s question on whether he was going to run for president in 2012.

And that’s how he said it, too.

I would like it if he would think about it, and absolutely love it if he ran. I can’t think of a better way to remind American voters that the last time they elected a sitting Texas governor America went from a country running in the black to one deeply in the red with two wars in the Middle East. America inherited Texas’ penchant to spend money it doesn’t have, it also inherited a much-hated Texas’ program, an unfunded mandate on school districts called No Child Left Behind.

In fact, they will be reminded of all of that every time he opens his mouth.

"Ahmona thank about it."

Rick Perry would not be the first Texas governor to run for President, but I do believe that he would be the first Republican to run for president who was once a Democrat. It is ironic that these days he is billed as a rightwing conservative that would attract the Teabagger vote. Rick Perry’s social and political views are 100% contrived. He is the complete flavor-of-the-day politician who believes in whatever will allow him to stay in office.

When he switched parties in 1989 it was only because the writing was on the wall that Republicans were on their way to power in Texas.

So it will be fun to see what happens between all the candidates as they vie for the votes of the right wing – also known as primary voters. Teabaggers can’t remember what they had for breakfast let alone remember that Perry was once a Democrat.

It will be fun to see how many times they get reminded of that.

President Michele Bachmann

President Michele Bachmann. How does that very idea grab you? Does it scare you about as much as it scares me? I should hope so. I should hope that even the notion that this incredibly ignorant woman who keeps getting elected to Congress would even come close to sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office would scare the bejesus out of anyone but the most fanatical evangelical Teabagger.

Michele Bachmann would make the ideal GOP candidate to run against Barack Obama in 2012. Ideal.

I hope she runs, and I hope that she outshines that miserable pack of unglamorous men who are laughably considered frontrunners for the GOP nomination. She will turn the 2012 campaign into a rout that will make the 2010 midterm election that brought Teabaggers into power look like, well, a tea party.