Here Comes Rick!
Here are the words of a man in serious denial:
"It's time to believe the promise of our future is better than the best days behind us."
-Rick Perry announcing his candidacy
It's evening in America....
The deeply disturbing
similarities to George W. Bush aside, Rick Perry has also got that Ronald Reagan thing happening, have you noticed that? Good hair, telegenic, sunny disposition, smooth talker - and dumber than an empty box of Rice Crispies. Ronnie with a Texas twang. The perfect candidate in this era of soundbites and snake oil. Just when you thought that the 2012 clown parade could not possibly get any stupider, enter Rick Perry, stage right - extreme right.
Life is beautiful.
Of course we are fifteen months away from Election Day 2012 - a lifetime in politics as they never tire of reminding us. So much can happen between now and then that it staggers the senses to even attempt to comprehend it all. This much is certain: Despite her "victory" yesterday in the laughably irrelevant "Iowa Straw Poll" there is no way in fate's infinitely twisted scheme that Michele Bachmann is going to get the nomination of her party - not in 2012 or any other year for that matter. While the folks who tend to vote in GOP primaries in the south and many parts of the Midwest might think that sending this deplorable twit to the White House is just a dandy idea, I'm pretty sure that the winter's chill will sober up most of them when the primary season goes into full gear in January. Saturday was her mountaintop. Let the poor, wretched woman savor her moment of glory.
Which brings us to the strange phenomenon of Rick Perry - or "Governor Good Hair" as the late, great Molly Ivins liked to refer to him. I miss that woman like nobody's business.
If this were 1960 it would have been a lot easier for me to dismiss our man Rick as a half-witted fringe candidate not to be taken seriously by anybody. Unfortunately 2011 is not 1960, and extremist politicians who would have felt right at home at a Nuremberg rally circa 1933 are pretty much the norm these days as far as the "party of Abraham Lincoln" is concerned. Rick Perry's candidacy isn't any political freak accident; it is fait accompli.
Rick describes himself as a devout Christian. Did you see his prayer rally last week? I took a pass. Watching politicians desecrate the teachings of Jesus Christ always puts me into a mean, blind funk. This is the same bastard who refused to commute the death sentence of some guy who was convicted of setting an arson that killed his three children. The only problem was the fact that there was voluminous scientific evidence in the man's favor which pointed to the conclusion that the fire had more-than-likely been accidental. Like Bush before him, Rick just had to prove to the country at large just how "tough on crime" he was. After the poor man was executed - murdered in cold blood - by the state of Texas, an investigation was initiated to get to the bottom of what went wrong. Governor Perry put a stop to that investigation.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Jesus of Nazareth
from the Sermon on the Mount
Some "Christian" that Rick Perry.
While your typical Republican primary voter may be smart enough to realize that Michele Bachmann doesn't stand much of a chance in the general election against an incumbent president, they're just dumb enough to see Rick as the winning alternative - and hell, who's to say that they're wrong? An electorate screamingly crazy enough to twice go with Dubya is capable of just about anything. I wouldn't bet even a small fortune on the chances of President Obama defeating him next year.
Some are implying that a "President Perry" would only be the final nail in America's coffin. I disagree. George W. Bush was the final nail. A Perry administration would merely prove to be yet another nail in a coffin that is already sealed shut. If he somehow miraculously makes it to the executive mansion on January 20, 2013, don't sweat it. One more reactionary cowboy in the Oval Office will only be anticlimactic. The eternal damage has been done. America is finished. Why get so bent out of shape about it? I'm not. I long ago adjusted to living in a country in ruins. You should, too.
The aforementioned Molly Ivins once advised us that putting people in charge of government who don't believe in government is generally not a particularly nifty idea. The gal had a talent for understatement, didn't she? Let me have a shot at it: Sending to the White House a guy who has twice - for the public record - hinted that his state might secede from the Union is as non-nifty an idea (and then some) as Molly's example.
NOTE TO MY BELOVED COUSINS, THE FABULOUS BARRAS FAMILY OF PORT ARTHUR, TEXAS: Forgive me for the following one, kids:
Not that I believe losing the Lone Star State would be such a national disgrace. That place is just too damned dysfunctional. And to think we fought a war with Mexico over the joint! I hardly think it was worth the effort. Be careful what you wish for - you know what I'm talking about? If they ever decide they need to leave the union, let 'em leave in peace. No civil war; no fuss - just let them go. Seriously
The theme to Rick's campaign will be the myth of the so-called "Texas Miracle", the claim that forty percent of the nation's jobs created in the last three years were in fact created in Texas. In his column in this morning's New York Times, Paul Krugman made the following observation:
"What Texas s
hows is that a state offering cheap labor and, less important, weak regulation can attract jobs from other states. I believe that the appropriate response to this insight is 'Well, duh.' The point is that arguing from this experience that depressing wages and dismantling regulation in America as a whole would create more jobs — which is, whatever Mr. Perry may say, what Perrynomics amounts to in practice — involves a fallacy of composition: every state can’t lure jobs away from every other state."
You gotta love Krugman. You just gotta!
Yeah, a shit load of jobs were created in Texas in the last few years. About half of those jobs were the result of President Obama's hated stimulus package. The other half were mostly minimum wage. Would you like some fries to go with that Triple Whopper? Have a nice heart attack!
By the way, Rick Perry wants to do away with the primary process. He wants the task of sending Senators and Congresspersons to Washington to be placed back in the hands of politicians in the statehouse - not the people. Just like it was in the nineteenth century. Please vote Republican. Please? Make my job easier. I'm begging you. I'm looking forward to the Perry Campaign like an eight-year-old kid looks forward to Christmas morning. A campaign as endearingly weird as that ought to be good for too much material to catalog. Can he make it all the way to the convention? It's not bloody likely that the religious bigots who now control that disgusting party will be nominating Mormon Mitt Romney anytime soon - the only one of the current frontrunners with an IQ higher than room temperature.
Oh, what the hell! Let's all pretend that it's morning again in America. Cheery optimism is the order of the day. Times as weird as these demand Rick Perry.
Git 'em, cowboy!
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontienret.net
AFTERTHOUGHT:
The great photo at the top of this piece was published in this morning's New York Daily News and is reprinted here with their generous permission.
CLARIFICATION:
Okay, I'll admit it; I nicked it without asking. So sue me.
SUGGESTED READING:
This piece on Rick Perry by Joshua Holland appeared this morning on the exquisitely subversive website, AlterNet:
Rick Perry's Campaign Strategy? Distorting His Economic Record
Here also is the piece by Paul Krugman quoted above:
The Texas Unmiracle
Happy reading, kids!
UPDATE, 9/5/11:
This morning AlterNet asked the musical question:
"Is Rick Perry Stupid?"
Here was my less than musical response:
Is Rick Perry stupid?
On my blog last month I made a comparison between Governor Perry and Ronald Reagan:
"Good hair, telegenic, sunny disposition, smooth talker - and dumber than an empty box of Rice Crispies. Ronnie with a Texas twang. The perfect candidate in this era of soundbites and snake oil."
Rick Perry was a terrible student. Is that proof of his stupidity? I was a terrible student, too. At least Rick managed to make it to - and graduate from - college. I dropped out of high school in the tenth grade. I only made it to a state college with the aid of an equivalency diploma and never graduated. And yet, these flaws in my education notwithstanding (Now there's a big word for a dropout! - "Notwithstanding"!) I'm not stupid - or at least I don't think I am. Stupid people always think they're smart. If they didn't they wouldn't be so damned stupid!
Is Rick Perry stupid?
I'm not in a position to say. However I can say this unequivocally: Rick Perry is as ignorant as a human being can be.
By the way, the nice folks over at Spell Check had to assist me with the word, "unequivocally". STUPID!
posted by Tom Degan @ 2:48 PM
78 comments
78 Comments:
Joint Chiefs: President Perry Iran is threatening to nuke the Saudi Oil Fields.
President Perry: That's bad, right?
Joint Chiefs: It could lead to WW III!
President Perry: That's bad, right?
Joint Chiefs: What are your orders?
President Perry: Let me check the Good Book.
Joint Chiefs: Sir that's The Cat in The Hat!
President Perry: Sorry, my bad. Let me check with Nuke Romney, he knows the Garden of Eden was somewhere in the Midwest. He'll be able to give me a Revelation...
Joint Chiefs: He's porking VP Bachmann at a cheap motel on Rt 666.
President Perry: Please excuse me while I shit in my pants.
America doesn't need any more cowboys.
It boggles the mind. I am so depressed by the turn of events with Perry and the sense of 'W deja vu' that I can barely get past it.
In case you missed this excellent commentary at CNN I'm linking here. One of the comments after it says, "Perry is George W Bush, without all the brains."
Definitely, certainly, and without question, he is Bush IV.
Predication: It'll be Perry vs. Obama in 2012, assuming the elections are held and we're not under martial law by then. Nevertheless, the winner has already been selected. Look for the announcement of the "winner" late in the night of Novenmber 6th. The coronation will follow in January.
"Perry is George W Bush, without all the brains."???
Wow! Good one, Lydia! Thanks for that link!
All the best,
Tom
I DO love Krugman!
In SC, we've got two things going for us...and ONLY two: We have an early primary that's "First In The South" and it's an open primary, which means we can vote across party lines. That means I, a registered Democrat, get to vote in the Republican primary. As long as there is no primary challenger for the Presidency, there's nothing to stop me and all the Democrats in the state from voting for the least electable Republican. SC has never failed to name the Republican candidate in this primary.
This part is going to be so much fun! Perry is definitely in the running for my vote. Eeny, meanies, miney, mo...
I'd love to write democratic campaign ads, sprinkled liberally with pics of GWB, if Perry is the nominee:
Thanks, but no thanks, Texas, "Fool me once..."
Liked Bush? You'll Love Perry!
America, how’d that last Texas Governor thingy work out for ya?
Perry for President...of the Confederacy
If Perry loves America, let him secede
American succeeds if Perry secedes
Gee, I sure didn't see this one coming from the Democrats. Bet Perry didn't even think about this until he saw this blog.
Yeah, I'm all for Texas seceding. But my preference would be that they have their own planet, and that it's not this one.
Just think, they could be the premier Idiocracy in the galaxy!
Aliens from all over the universe would monitor it just for the comedy...
You might find this interesting on how the rest of the world views the US. www.smh.com.au/opinion/contributors/america-is-rotting-at-its-core-20110815-1iunv.html?comments=52#comments
I don't really understand why people think Perry has good looks. I'm a gay man, so pretty well-qualified to evaluate male 'looks.' Perry would not be hit on in a gay bar. He looks like the type of older man, closeted, married, that you find in the back room of the bar tipping the go-go boy dancers -- possibly too cheap though to buy a lap dance -- and believing they find him attractive. He is actually quite unattractive; has out of date and contrived hair, a poor dresser, oily skin that shines, fake smiles. He looks like quite a few car or insurance salesmen I have run into. But good looks? No. He is the male version of Sarah Palin -- only attractive to sex-stared self-haters who are sexually repressed. Anybody comfortable in their own skin would find neither of these 'fake' beauties attractive.
It seems fairly obvious that it really won't make much difference who the President is. The President appears to be nothing more than an empty suit puppet controlled by the plutocracy. WE THE PEOPLE have no real control over which candidates get on the ballot. MONEY controls Presidential races and by definition the wealthy are the folks with the money. For example I know many of you fine liberals would love to support a Ellis D. and Gypsy B. Woodstock Nation Party ticket for President and Vice President respectively but would be able to contribute little if anything in the way of financial support. I for one would love a chance to debate mainstream politicians and expose the many errors in their reasoning and their ridiculously faulty logic. Of course the establishment would never let that happen as it would be very embarrassing for them to be shown up by a hippie lawyer. So Gypsy Bob.....we still have the $2.47 we raised in 2006, shall we revive the ticket and campaign here in The Rant ?? :-)
Hell yes, Ellis! I'd vote for ya - I can even send five dollars!
Tom,
sounds to me like you have sharted your pants now that Rick Perry has announced his candidacy!
the only way obummer can beat Rick in a debate is if all the questions are canned and obummer only has to read his answer from that teleprompter that he sleeps with!
Paul Krugman has no problem spending money, especially when it is not his!
Your friend Krugman is a moron. Any Nobel Prize economist should return their award after suggesting that the price of gold is high because of Glenn Beck advertising it. Give me a break.
I suggest you listen to this full youtube clip where Peter Schiff (an economist who actually knows what he is talking about, called the housing market collapse etc) and explains some of Krugman's theories. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQM_-LucnZA
Enjoy Keynesians.
Hey Anonymous 6:21PM,
that Paul Krugman with his space invaders theory really has his head deep up his butt! his economics nobel prize was just as deserving as obama's peace nobel prize lol.
why don't we start burning down buildings so that they can be rebuilt. job openings for carpenters, plumbers, yada yada would then be created! for more info on how this would work, read the "broken window fallacy" by Bastiat who wrote it over a hundred years ago!
Rick Perry even looks a bit like a poor copy of Ronald Reagan. When his full record is revealed to the common folks and they see that he is for abolishing Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid he probably won't get the nomination, much less the presidency.
Ellis and Gypsy Bob, count me in with a fiver also...
Dave, I think I'd hire you if I were doing the ad campaign for the dems, although I'd hope you'd make mention of Romney's to-be-legendary gaffe about "corporations being people". I'm sure that one day it'll be his epitaph. He stupidly said what just about every conservative thinks.
Anna (and Dave), we've had to knuckle under to a whole succession of "Bushes" (present president included), why not a secession as the icing on the cake? Great idea!
Hey Anonymous (aka, Boltok, ArchieBunker, Just the Facts!, etc., etc.)
Please show me one country on this planet, just one, where total free market capitalism (i.e., laissez-faire economics) is in place and thrives for the benefit of the majority. I'm only asking for one.
One, please...
Now...
Hey, Jeff
Not until you tell me what differences you as a liberal believes in and the beliefs found on the Communist Party's USA web's site
CPUSA.ORG
And from another string on this blog I can find no answer to this question to you.
"For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."
2 Thessalonians 3:10
Still think we should take from each according to his ability and give to each according to their need?
Hey Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker)...
How's this suit ya'?:
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s" (Matthew 22:21)
You see, when you get right down to it, all of the apostles were their generation's hippies. They ate communally, they traveled communally, they slept communally, they, in effect, lived communally. They shared expenses while sharing the work, and they were instructed by their leader to pay their taxes. That made them...gasp!...communists.
As far as going to the website you provided, I will not even consider looking at it unless you extend me the courtesy of providing a hyperlink. Sorry! That's my policy. I refuse to do your work for you. Ironically, this should be very understandable to you. ;-)
Now, answer my question. Please name one...if you can.
And God wants 10% and how much does Caesar want? And what is charity, giving to God or giving to Caesar?
Just think Jeff, if the govt were not taxing the 52% OF US WHO PAY ALL THE BILLS, how much more we could give to GOD instead of big govt?
Not sure you can find records that that all of the apostles were their generation's hippies. In fact I seem to recall Saul AKA Paul was a tent maker. That Peter AKA the Rock was a fisherman, that Mathew was a tax collector, your favorite apostle I'd bet.
Here's more of those none working apostles hippies of their day.
Andrew - Fisherman
James the Greater - Farmer
John - Fisherman
Thomas - Carpenter
Thaddeus - Farmer
Simon - Farmer
Note in verse 35 of Acts 4 that those who sold their possessions were not the apostles, because in vs 33 it states that the multitude of whose who believed sold their possessions and vs 35, "laid them at the apostles feet, who they distributed to each as anyone had need."
Of course this was after giving unto Caesar what was his. And note that after the multitude was taken care of, can you find another case of this sharing?
Next, would you like to dive into finding the Biblical support for abortion/female reproductive rights, or the murdering of unborn or newly born children?
Now to the issue of you not going to the CPUSA website, it does surprise me that you would refuse since I'm sure you have it bookmarked already.
Ellis, I'm on board. Regarding the $2.47 from our last campaign do we have to pay a 10% Tax as Just the Facts/Anonymous wants? Rounded off that comes to 25 cents. Should we send it to Hop Along Perry? We don't want him to besmirch The Woodstock Nation Party or even worse branding us as Traitors. I think under Governor Perry's tenure they have executed folks for less.
So, Tricky Rick's takin' on the Fed. He's gonna get crushed.
I'm revising my previous prediction...
Great article Tom! I notice the right has made their obligatory appearance to smear it, as usual without any backup to their arguments; no defense of Perry or trying to pretend he's done anything useful, just bible quotes and Ron Paul shills trying to disprove anyone who doesn't agree with them, as per usual! LOL
Keep up the good work!
"Just the facts" quotes something from the book of Paul, who was possibly just an earlier version of Glenn Blecccchhh. So what? Jesus had quite a different opinion about social justice than his adoring and grovelling apostle Paul.
Jeff Guard
"Just the facts" quotes something from the book of Paul, who was possibly just an earlier version of Glenn Blecccchhh."
Looking for Book of Paul in the Bible. Seem to find it. Could you just be making it up? Just a warning to you Jeff, from Revelation 22:18 a John writes about about the Bible:
"If anyone adds to these things, God will ad to him the plagues that are written in this book."
And this statement please provide sources to support your claim that,
"Jesus had quite a different opinion about social justice than his adoring and grovelling apostle Paul."
I cant seem to find where you found that position in the Bible.
Oh, and by the way, the use of the Bible in this debate was started by you in your posts trying to support socialism. Nice try, but it is a major FAIL, and you talk about smears, weak, very weak.
JTF, why don't you and your theocratically-inclined cohorts go somewhere far, far away and form your own little biblical enclave? Y'all can wait for the rapture and drink your Kool-Aid together, like one big happy family!
Plus, then you can quote from your big book of make-believe all you want, and the rest of us won't be bored to tears.
Hey Anna,
Why don't you read my post before you start calling ME names. If you did you would see that it was your liberal brother Jefferson's Guardian who interjected the Bible into this. He used it as a way to support his socialist, liberal view points. All I did was use the same source he did to disprove his position.
Your blaming the wrong person Anna, but that's ok, you don't have to apologize to me.
Hey, Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker)...
Looks like to me you started drinking earlier in the day than usual. ;-) Been chugging a few with your tavern customers?
If you haven't figured it out yet, you're addressing the wrong person. Jesus -- you are such a dumb ass!
By the way, this is exactly the reason you have zero credibility here, or on Dave Dubya's blog, or I'm sure just about anywhere else you show up with your trolling escapades and delirium. As Anna suggested, why don't you go start a cult somewhere, far far away, and pass around the purple Kool-Aid? You'll put yourself out of your misery, and ours!
Okay, Ellis and Gypsy Bob, where do we send the checks?
(Is Tom your campaign manager?)
Jeff Guard,
Just WTF are you talking about? I am responding to your posts and Anna's.
Yeah, I probably wouldn't hold my breath waiting on an apology, Mr. Kool-Aid...you cited your little bibble dribble first. JG only responded in kind to piss you off, and clearly he got your little panties in a bunch.
You're so played - you got nothing, asswipe.
I think Rick Perry is a hunk and not only will I vote for him in 2012 but I would like to have his love child!
Anna Z V X,
If you mention Christ, on this side of the aisle, you liberals/progressives/marxists will bring up Darwin. If you say, 'Ok, I believe in Darwin's survival of the fittest,' you liberals/progressives/marxists will then say they think you should be more Christ-like in your giving. lol on that sweetie pie!
jg, are you tommie d?
Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker), incredibly, you said...
"Just WTF are you talking about? I am responding to your posts..."
Hey, my brain-dead and neurotic foe, check the thread and see who made the comments about Paul (Saul, or who whoever...). It wasn't me!
As I previously said, you are such a dumb ass.
(And you want to be my latex salesman... ;-)
Hey Jeff guard, I'm pretty sure your post was before mine.
And before this post there was yours, on another string which I responded with:
"And from another string on this blog I can find no answer to this question to you."
"Hey Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker)...
How's this suit ya'?:
"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s" (Matthew 22:21)
8:50 PM"
Now Jeff I cut and paste your original post where YOU brought in the Bible to support your liberal/socialist positions.
"In Acts, the Apostles' lifestyle is described as communal (without individual possession), and the term is used in the phrase, "distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."
(Acts 4:35)"
From a post by Jeff Guard at 11:32 AM on the thread/string titled; "Plutocracy Rules"
What's the matter can't remember what you post any more? Just to nip this in the bud, I post under the name, Just the Facts!, not as you assumed as anonymous.
Now who is brain-dead and neurotic?
Jeff Guard,
You in just this string have called me a dumb ass, brain-dead, neurotic, and drinking earlier in the day than usual, plus an asswipe by Anna.
A few strings ago I was taken to the wood shed for using the term"libtards" by Dave himself.
I wonder who the term double standard
applies to? Huh, Dave?
Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker), you correctly stated (for once)...
"You in just this string have called me a dumb ass, brain-dead, neurotic, and drinking earlier in the day than usual, plus an asswipe by Anna."
I call 'em as I see 'em...
By the way, I also pointed out your delirium. Don't forget that. I didn't call you neurotic, but thanks for the observation. It also fits you perfectly!
Well while you folks are bickering I want to point out that just one day after Gypsy Bob and I threw our Woodstock Nation Party hat into the ring President Obama ( as a challenger I now feel the need to be respectful toward him ) announced a forthcoming job creation plan. In baseball this is known as a " scare save ". See the pitcher sees the activity in the bullpen and is scared into pitching better to stay in the game. Hence the bullpen pitcher is credited with a " scare save ". Knowing that he now has to deal with smart hippies Obama has his ass in gear. Of course it could just be a coincidence :-) Vote WNP in 2012 !!
Here comes Rick! But where goes humble President Nero? Oh, I forgot, he's off to Martha's Vineyard while unemployment skyrockets and markets burn.
T-445
Revisionist Religious History. A question for the Perry/Bachmann ticket. As religious types I'd like their opinion on why Jesus wants top bill and doesn't want to share.
When depicting the Crucifixion Jesus was always shown flanked by two other hangers on identified as criminals ... three crosses. Nowadays it's depicted as a unicross event. An oversight or a problem with compassion issue?
boltok said...
Here comes Rick! But where goes humble President Nero? Oh, I forgot, he's off to Martha's Vineyard while unemployment skyrockets and markets burn.
1) If you were President Boltok what would you do? After all what can be accomplished presiding over a Ghost town? As for the economy there is not one shred of any sustainable positive news/trend to hang your hat on. The bottom is still a long way down.
I wonder if the Prez, while on Martha's Vineyard. is thinking about jobs when he wakes up, jobs when he goes to sleep and jobs when he tees off?
Gypsy Bob, Boltok has a lot of nerve to criticize a guy for taking a vacation. Dubya was the king of goofing off, and let's not forget that he sat on his hands while America was under attack.**
**Well, inside jobs, notwithstanding, should still be considered "under attack". Wouldn't ya' say?
Ellis D, Gypsy Bob
Count me in on the Woodstock Nation Party!
What should be our slogan?
How about:
"Share the Wealth, Share the Wealth!"
or maybe
"Share your Pot, Share your Pot!"
I just want to say to all the complainers who are paying federal income tax like JTF to just get over it!
JTF, we need you to pull the wagon harder for the wagon riders like me. There is no skin off my rear if I don't have to pay any federal income tax and you do!
Gypsy,
If I was President Boltok, I would probably fly around constantly on fundraising missions and hang in SoCal. Cash bitches!!!
I would fly everywhere on Marine One/Air Force One. I would use my military power to do a couple tail hook landings. That would be a lot of fun.
I would avoid unpleasantries like budgeting, increasing the manufacturing base, disengaging from unproductive military conflict, protecting our own borders and the like. Those types of activities would not be any fun at all.
I would also hire JG and MO as my Chief of Staff/Press Minister. They would be able to justify any of my aberrant escapades financed with the public dime.
I would make Jug Ears look like an amateur river scam artist. I really shouldn't criticize.
boltok - most of what you just posted sounds like a page right out of Dubya's playbook.
Wasn't creating jobs the GOP mandate? Wasn't that why they were elected and wasn't that to be their first order of business?
As for Rick Perry, let's not get our knickers in a twist yet. Remember that Donald Trump created a lot of excitement for a few weeks.
Yeah, I'm all for Texas seceding. But my preference would be that they have their own planet, and that it's not this one.
Gypsy Bob, you said...
"...most of what you just posted sounds like a page right out of Dubya's playbook."
I concur, Boltok's description fits George W. Bush to a T! Well, except for the part where he hires me as his chief of staff. That would have never happened -- I would have told the truth.
Parry has a 41% approval rating in Texas. I guess the good folks there know their best days are to come if they can just get that man out of their state. Unfortunately, then the entire globe would be subjected to perryoxysms of horror and laughter.
Wow. The Capta word for me to type in today is "penic." One little letter off. I was tempted to substitute just for laughs.
Gallup
PRINCETON, NJ -- President Obama's job approval rating dropped to 40% during the week spanning Aug. 8-14, the lowest weekly average of his administration. During this period, Obama's three-day rolling average also hit a new low of 39% for Aug. 11-13, the first such average below 40% since he took office, though it recovered to 41% for Aug. 12-14.
JG and Gypsy, I knew you atom splitters would default to Bush when I wrote tail hook. So predictable. JG, you would work for me in a minute.
A little math on 40% job approval.
Divide 60% disapproval by the following denominator: those that are in some way capable of being influenced to vote for a non democratic candidate in the upcoming election.
100% - all likely voters
12% - rock solid african american support
15% - left wing luantics like yourselves
equals
73% remaining
60% divided by 73% equals 82%.
That means 82 out of every 100 people capable of voting against the Teleprompter disapprove. He's toast. I'd love to see a Bachmann/Palin ticket win so I can listen to you squeal like stuck pigs. I will probably stop writing then. What could I possibly do to irritate you more?
Man is born naked into the world, and needing to use his mind to learn how to take the resources given him by nature, and to transform them (for example, by investment in "capital") into shapes and forms and places where the resources can be used for the satisfaction of his wants and the advancement of his standard of living. The only way by which man can do this is by the use of his mind and energy to transform resources ("production") and to exchange these products for products created by others. Man has found that, through the process of voluntary, mutual exchange, the productivity and hence the living standards of all participants in exchange may increase enormously.
The German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer pointed out that there are two mutually exclusive ways of acquiring wealth:
- the "economic means"
- the "political means"
One, the above way of production and exchange, he called the "economic means."
The other way is simpler in that it does not require productivity; it is the way of seizure of another's goods or services by the use of force and violence. This is the method of one-sided confiscation, of theft of the property of others. This is the method which Oppenheimer termed "the political means" to wealth. It should be clear that the peaceful use of reason and energy in production is the "natural" path for man: the means for his survival and prosperity on this earth. It should be equally clear that the coercive, exploitative means is contrary to natural law; it is parasitic, for instead of adding to production, it subtracts from it.
The "political means" siphons production off to a parasitic and destructive individual or group; and this siphoning not only subtracts from the number producing, but also lowers the producer's incentive to produce beyond his own subsistence. In the long run, the robber destroys his own subsistence by dwindling or eliminating the source of his own supply.
48% of Americans want the "political means",
52% of Americans want the "economic means",
to acquire wealth.
Kind of says it all, in one brief sentence.
Boltok, you said...
"JG and Gypsy, I knew you atom splitters would default to Bush when I wrote tail hook."
No you didn't. But, you backed into it after the fact, when you realized that what Gypsy Bob said was true.
"JG, you would work for me in a minute."
No, you wouldn't want me working for you. I'd show you up every minute of the day, throwing your absurd economic analysis into your face; telling you that you need to go on a diet, work-out, improve your eating habits, etc., etc. You'd end up firing me.
By the way, your electoral analysis is premature, not to mention naive. All Obama has to do to rally the people behind him, is exactly what Bush did before him: Formulate and create an imaginary danger out there somewhere, following another inside-job, of mammoth proportions, to be orchestrated and executed on his watch. I call in the "boogeyman phenomena". It serves, at a minimum, two purposes: (1) It jump-starts a flailing president's popularity, through a circle-the-wagons mentality, and (2) It diverts ungodly amounts of public resources to fund unnecessary and contrived wars -- that are profitable for a select and elitist few.
Obama's handlers will let him know when the time is right.
Boogeyman phenomena"which
"diverts ungodly amounts of public resources to fund unnecessary and contrived wars -- that are profitable for a select and elitist few." in order to regain popular support.
Are you talking about the failed stimulus plan or the endless "War on Poverty"
Obama, its the economy stupid!
JG,
You're correct, I was wrong to consider you from my Chief of Staff position. If an opening as Chief Bong Filler should open, I will contact you. Looks like expanded responsibilities for MO. Do you really think a errantly placed a tail hook sentence when all I really want to do is attack the Teleprompter?
Just the Facts! (aka ArchieBunker, and at times, Anonymous, but to me will always be my dumb ass, brain-dead, and neurotic foe, you said...
"Are you talking about the failed stimulus plan or the endless 'War on Poverty'"
Failed stimulus plan? Yes, as in it failed to be large enough. It should have been three times the $787B that was allotted in order to pull us out of this funk. But, it was a token effort at best. It had no real teeth.
By the way, I notice that Tricky Rick wasn't shy about taking his share of the dough. ;-) Gee, what's up with that?
As far as the War on Poverty; that ended when Reagan took office. Nobody talks about the poor in this nation anymore. They're a forgotten casualty of the corporate-state. Soon, you'll be joining its ranks. Sooner, than later, if a Republican gets into office. Count on it. You can take it to the bank! (Well, not really.)
Obama, You were pretty slick in your 2008 campaign promising "Hope And Change", but "Where's The Beef?"
Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has been in the presidential race for only 20 minutes, but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign:
"I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can."
This will be grand news to Schylar Capo of Virginia. The 11-year-old made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days and, for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish and Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535 fine.
Chevy Volt: Flagship Model Of The Government-Industrial Complex
If you build it, some might come.
President Obama recently reminded General Motors‘ stockholders, all 311 million of us, that he’s calling the shots at America’s largest automaker, when he told an audience in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, that freedom to market was the price for the bailout: “If we are going to help you [GM], then you have also got to change your ways.” And then he stated the ways: electric cars, and isn’t it great that jillions of taxpayer dollars are being thrown at battery manufacturers?
The Government-Industrial Complex (GIC) is at it again, picking energy technologies. Its track record is atrocious. Highly subsidized solar is in eclipse, as demonstrated by the recent bankruptcy of Evergreen Solar in Massachusetts. Try as it might, it can’t make wind energy a big player, largely because people hate it. And how much money has it lavished on Ethanol? This year we will burn up more corn than we will use as a feedstock, which has (and should have) appalled the world.
Nevermind that no one has figured out how to produce a comfortable electric car at an affordable (non-subsidized) price that has enough range to be practical for the most of us. And so GM’s answer is the Chevrolet Volt, which doesn’t suffer from range limitation because of its internal combustion engine, which works both as a generator and prime mover as the charge in 400 pounds of lithium ion batteries depletes.
Carrying a $41,000 base MSRP and a $7,500 tax break, the Volt is either going to be the biggest bust since the Edsel, or a niche car with very modest sales. It is not, repeat, not the wave of the future. It’s just too impractical for a large number of everyday drivers.
Cynics are springing handstands over the paltry sales of 125 units last month. GM responds that supply was very short because they had to retool the Hamtramck, Michigan Volt-a-drome so that it could amp production up to 5000 per month, with the expectation of 60,000 to be produced next year (15,000 for overseas delivery).
...And next up on Anon's complaint list will be the price of gas.
Anyone who thinks Obama is safe from a rabbit attack has forgotten what happened to President Jimmy Carter In 1979. Carter was attacked by a swimming rabbit, and the subsequent "Killer Rabbit" stories helped destroy his presidency. It led to the election of Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide and an unprecedented economic revival.
There are eerie similarities. Like Obama, Carter was at that point where he was constantly viewed as weak and ineffectual. His fellow Democrats had lost patience with him. Liberal writers who once fawned on him had turned against him.
And like Obama, Carter foolishly left the White House for a "vacation." Carter went home to Georgia for some fishing. Once his canoe hit the water of a pond, a terrible thing happened. A rabbit swam near with anger in its eyes.
The story was reported by the Associated Press, and the papers picked up accounts of the "Killer Rabbit." Network news operations jumped on it too. Here's the top of the original story:
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Carter beat back an attacking rabbit with a canoe paddle when it swam at him as he fished near his Plains, Ga., home last spring.
He's got a picture to prove it, but the evidence is locked away at the White House.
The White House declined to make public photographs of the president and the bunny. "There are just certain stories about the president that must forever remain shrouded in mystery," Deputy Press Secretary Rex Granum explained Wednesday."
Because the White House refused to release photographs of the rabbit attack — and what president would want photographs released of him in a life-or-death struggle with a cute Peter Cottontail — the media was forced to use cartoons to illustrate the historic combat.
One of the first cartoons was a parody of the poster for the popular movie "Jaws," except that instead of a shark, it was a rabbit with "Paws."
And then Sen. Ted Kennedy, the famed swimmer of Chappaquiddick, took advantage of Carter's weakness and challenged him for the Democratic nomination.
This image was carved into the national mind: A beleaguered president showing teeth and fear, wild-eyed, as the tiny little rabbit leaped in anger, just like that killer rabbit in that Monty Python movie.
The metaphor of the Killer Rabbit expressed weak Democratic leadership, much in the same way the way George H.W. Bush's ignorance about the price of a gallon of milk was used to demonstrate Republican insensitivity.
Was it fair? No. It was politics.
But since that time, whenever a president's job approval ratings are hitting bottom, someone invariably brings up the Killer Rabbit attack. It's been applied to Republicans and Democrats, and pundits are applying it to Obama with increasing frequency.
dave w:
"...And next up on Anon's complaint list will be the price of gas."
dave w, how has the Ethanol program worked out? you know the one pushed by the government where for each gallon of Ethanol gas created it takes a gallon of gas to produce it?
The wheels are off the Obama bus. It's up on the cinder blocks on some rental property in Martha's Vineyard this weekend. It is the end of the summer of discontent for a president who's clearly in over his head and whose wallowing is most unbecoming.
Mr. Obama's economic policy prescriptions, textbook Keynesian mumbo jumbo, have failed. History would have been instructive had only he been learned in the discipline. Obviously, he's not. Next month, he'll return with yet another chapter of the novella best titled "Hocus Pocus."
Policy failures aside, we can only wonder if America also should be worried about the mental state of this president. Just prior to his Midwestern bus tour, at a private New York fundraiser, Obama's reported to have likened opposition to his presidency to the persecution of Martin Luther King. Then, on tour, his maudliness plunged deeper as he compared his plight to the sufferings of Abraham Lincoln.
As Gettysburg College history professor Allen C. Guelzo reminded, Mr. Lincoln rose to the challenge and exhibited greatness in his leadership. But, "In our current national agony ... we have come to see a littleness, not a greatness, in Barack Obama. And it is not for him that we feel sorry, but for ourselves."
For it is a tragedy of our own making.
Carter's defeat had nothing to do with a rabbit. It was the Bush cartel's treasonous bargain with Iran, using the embassy hostages as pawns. I should say "first bargain" before arms for hostages deal. They loved negotiating with terrorists to undermine democracy.
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/coupreaganbush.htm
Say what you will about ethanol, the air is cleaner from it, and:
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/dbs/pdffiles/08wp467.pdf
Using pooled regional time-series data and panel data estimation, we quantify the impact of
monthly ethanol production on monthly retail regular gasoline prices. This analysis suggests that
the growth in ethanol production has caused retail gasoline prices to be $0.29 to $0.40 per gallon
lower than would otherwise have been the case.
...it keeps the price of gas lower than it would be without it.
The Right sees no need for alternatives for energy needs. Bless their oil-soaked little heads.
Not Krugman,
Obama's failures are directly attributed to Republcan obstruction. The Right has never put the country ahead of their greed and lust for power.
This mess is what they want.
Dave W
There’s a reason Texas has been voted the best state in which to do business.
It’s highly functional – unlike California, where a combination of high taxes, bloated public-sector unions, intrusive regulation and high unemployment has brought the state to the point of bankruptcy.
Texas now has more Fortune 500 headquarters than any other U.S. state.
PS - Dave W, if you want to be the Seinfeld soup nazi on your blog and ban me, thats OK. Its your blog and if you want to be a Hugo Chavez thats your choice. Tom D believes in free speech. Look how he turns the other cheek when the secular liberals here ridicule his Catholic religion.
Dave W
The government sponsered Ethanol program is a joke.
If it takes a gallon of gas to produce a gallon of Ethanol gas, then once again government economics has failed.
Do you also believe in perpetual motion machines?
Failed stimulus plan? Yes, as in it failed to be large enough. It should have been three times the $787B that was allotted in order to pull us out of this funk. But, it was a token effort at best. It had no real teeth."
Jeff Guard, you are a complete moron.
"Carter's defeat had nothing to do with a rabbit. It was the Bush cartel's treasonous bargain with Iran, using the embassy hostages as pawns."
Sure, cause with out the treasonous bargain, Carter would have won by a land slide.
Dave Duyba, you are a laugh a minute with your insane liberal conspiracy theory's used to explain why Americans reject liberal ideas. It's simply, liberalism fails every time!
Jeff Guard,
On second thought not only are you a complete moron, you are also a perfect rectum!
Let me see if I've got this right.
He's been out there, for MONTHS, going on about "MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES" and their "PRIVATE JETS".
But, he keeps flying HIS Private Jet, all around the Country, so that he can Pal around with these MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES. and get some of their money, for his Re-election Campaign.
We're told, by him, that we should HATE these people. That they should be PUNISHED.
Yet, for his Birthday, lots of MILLIONAIRES and BILLIONAIRES, flew in to D.C. on their PRIVATE JETS, so they could gorge themselves on the FINEST of EVERYTHING, and go Dancing, barefoot, in the White House Rose Garden.
Now, as we the people, hunker down amidst a steady stream of DISASTEROUS Economic News Stories, here, and around the world, the Obamas EACH take a PRIVATE JUMBO JET to MARTHA'S VINEYARD, for 10 days of rest and relaxation, at a 28 ACRE Ocean Front Estate. Courtesy of a MILLIONAIRE/BILLIONAIRE, whom, I'm pretty sure, has a PRIVATE JET. (It seems that Michelle Antoinette could not wait the 4 HOURS, that her husband would require, so she left without him.)
Some Pigs, truly are, MORE EQUAL than others.
These people have GOT TO GO.
Just The FOX(R),
You crow about an “insane liberal conspiracy theory's” effect yet want us to think a rabid rabbit made more of a difference? That’s hilarious. And as we all know, since you’re one of the most fact-impaired commenter here and least likely to research a subject,, you would certainly be the least qualified to judge what is insane or not. We’re talking about the Bush Cartel’s history. Historical records show their dealings with the Nazis had to stopped by the “Trading with the enemy act”. Reagan/Bush had this little illegal scam about arms for hostages in the Iran/Contra affair. The Reagan/Bush Iran “October Surprise” that you ignorantly dismiss totally fits into the pattern of their SOP. An insane conspiracy theory would be one with no witnesses or reason to suspect such conspiracy. Neither applies to all these cases.
Publius, Exalted seer of the future,
Yes, the so-called “highly functional” Texas McJobs Miracle. As we see in USA Today:
...the state's low tax burdens exact a high cost: fewer state services. Perry, for example, refused to raise taxes to close a $27 billion budget gap last spring. Instead, the Legislature slashed more than $4 billion in funding for public schools the next two years, a move that's likely to lead to tens of thousands of teacher layoffs.
"We're not preparing our children to compete in tomorrow's economy," says Scott McCown, head of Texas' Center for Public Policy Priorities.
Texas ranks 44th in the USA in per-student expenditures and 43rd in high school graduation rates, McCown says. Seventeen percent of Texans lived below the poverty level in 2009, compared with 14% for the nation. The state leads in the percentage of the population with no health insurance and was ninth in income inequality in the mid-2000s, the latest data available, according to McCown and the Economic Policy Institute.
McCown says Texas should not serve as a job-growth paradigm for the rest of the nation.
"If you're saying you want to look like Texas, you're saying you want to be poor and have less health care," he says.
Thanks, but no thanks, Texas. We already have the catastrophic effects of the last Texas governor in the White House. Although I dearly love many good Texans, I almost wish Perry would secede, for the benefit of the rest of the country. The same would apply to all the beneficiaries of “red state socialism”. That would be most of the parasitic former Confederate States that suck in more federal revenues than they contribute. Look it up.
Folks, it is impossible to argue with a devout fascist. All the points you bring up about the rising poverty level, the number of unemployed, even the illegality of many of the actions of the fascists will simply please them no end. Their intent is to bring down the government, to seize as much of the wealth as possible and to inflict as much harm as is possible to minorities and women. They actually believe in a twisted version of evolution, as has been noted above. They reinvent evolution into "survival of the fittest", which is not at all what Darwin proposed; his discovery was that life changes over time, that some of these changes produce new species. This is why the title of his book is not "Survival of the Fittest" but "Origin of Species". He was not writing about humans exclusively anyway, he was addressing finches, fruit flies and humans. Some animals survive by lying and cheating and stealing other animals' food supply, like politicians- ALL politicians. They survive not because they are clever or stronger but because by lying constantly they cause the other people to support them against their own interests. But that's government for you.
I don't give a rats behind anymore which fascist pig the Powers place in the WH. It's too late to save the Empire, we should start thinking about how to help the individual states form regional governments to insure, among other things, that the bridges are safe, the electricity continues to flow and children are educated in reality, not religion. Religion is proper in a family, even an extended family but it was never designed to govern a nation. Christianity was, in fact, a communist Utopian dream of an undereducated middle class Jewish philosopher. It didn't work for him and it can't work now. People like "Boltok" continue to lust after their mothers and plot against their neighbors.
Texas was stolen from the Mexicans, as was most of the SW. The peasants are slowly coming back to their homeland and it pisses off the descendants of the thieves and ignorant. The basic flaws in capitalism are showing thru the cracks as most of America is barely paying the bills while the rich simply live on the dole. What? Doesn't Trump earn his money? NO, absolutely not. He leases out his name. He has no skills except how to steal other people's wealth. So naturally he's a hero to the Right. They like mobsters, too. Hell they elect mobsters! They also seem to really like psychotics- like President-For-Life Cheney, a man who never met a person he wouldn't like to shoot in the face. Amazing.
See, this fits in nicely with evolution. Cheney spawned a lesbian moron who will live off the public by getting paid for talking. Amazing. He gets paid for murdering hundreds of thousands of innocents and she gets paid for explaining why it's such a good idea to murder people who get in your way. Only in a floundering empire do the true psychotics rise up to power. The right wing hacks who respond here are like the civil servants under Hitler. They are too chicken shit to get their hands bloody but they enjoy ripping us off to pay for the bombs and torture chambers.
For some time I have been telling people I expect in my lifetime to have an American President order the invasion of northern Mexico "to preserve national security". I also expect that same Pres to order the invention of a 50 mile "Peace Zone" in Canada where America military forces enforce the law (our law) and Canadian citizens are required to carry citizenship papers. After all, most of the (Saudi) hijackers in 9-11 came thru Canada, right? Well, close enough. The one country we will not invade is the one which generated the terrorists: Saudi Arabia. Honor among thieves...and murderers.
Okay, now the right wing morons can drool and chatter their responses.
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