This blog is no longer active as of October 31, 2011
Check out Chuckie Johnson’s latest attack on Republicans.
To think, a few years ago, people were wanting to drink his bathwater on the right, at one time.
If I were Rick Perry and I saw this; I’d sue Johnson for everything I could get out of him for this sort of a libel.
Ain't it the truth?
(Via Reason)
Alex Cortes makes a good case for it.
While most of the Republican presidential candidates have criticized President Obama about his waste of taxpayer money on the politically connected and now bankrupt energy company Solyndra, Rick Perry has remained silent. Why? Perhaps because he may soon have his very own Solyndra.
As governor, Perry created the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, which has doled out, at his discretion, nearly $200 million to 133 businesses. More than $16 million from the fund has gone to firms with officers or investors who were major Perry contributors.
One such firm is Convergen, which has developed a lung-cancer treatment that is under Phase II clinical trial. The company was successful in getting Texas taxpayers to put up $4.5 million through Perry’s fund, despite founder David Nance’s investing a measly $1,000. Did Nance’s $335,000 to Perry’s campaigns, association fundraisers, and TexasOne Foundation have anything to do with it?
It likely did, given that Convergen’s proposal failed the regional review process meant to extricate political influence — and was later approved by a state advisory panel that Nance formerly sat on. The amount awarded also happened to be highest amount ever from the fund. Perry and his team know that Convergen may soon look a lot like Solyndra, since only 33 percent of successful Phase II drugs make it to the market.
But this is not an assault on Governor Perry in particular: He is far from alone among his Republican gubernatorial colleagues in advancing corporatist policies.
For example, Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, who’s been mentioned as a potential vice presidential running mate for Perry, has also fallen to corporatism in a variety of ways. McDonnell succeeded in getting his state’s general assembly to increase funding for the Governor’s Opportunity Fund, a $54 million pot from which he can give grants to corporations that create jobs in the commonwealth. He has also created special tax incentives for the wine and film industries and provided the International Speedway Corporation a $1.5 million grant to keep one of its NASCAR races in the state.
via Conservatives and Corporatism – Alex Cortes – National Review Online.
I see his point; the Republicans and Conservatives are going ballyhoo Obama for his green energy debacle, they should be prepared to answer for some of their own misdeeds. Contrary to what some of the Bloggers on the right like to print, corruption and political favors are common on both sides. This needs to end, the era of backroom deals and favors, in this day of so-called transparency needs to end.
In other words; if we are going to point the accusing finger at the other side, we should clean the trash up in our own backyards.
This comes via Doug Welch on Google+
(H/T Gateway Pundit)
Capital New York reports:
With Governor Chris Christie confirming today that he won’t seek the presidency, some big-name donors are finally ready to commit themselves to Mitt Romney.
“A lot of us who normally would have been in this presidential race a long time ago, have been waiting for Christie to make a decision,” said Georgette Mosbacher, a Republican uber-fund-raiser and finance co-chair of the Republican National Committee who was among a group of Republican bundlers hoping to convince Christie to enter the race. “I think tomorrow, we’ll be contacting one another and probably put something together with Romney.”
“I’m going to go with Mitt Romney,” said John Catsimatidis, another donor who had been intrigued with Christie, in a brief phone interview this afternoon.
“You’re calling about yesterday’s news,” said Catsimatidis, who said he had gotten the indication Christie wouldn’t run from some of the governor’s advisers yesterday.
Catsimatidis said he had started pitching Romney in the last couple weeks, on the expectation the governor wouldn’t seek the nomination. At a meeting with other conservatives last Monday night, Catsimatidis said, he made the pitch for Romney’s electability.
“The speech I gave to my conservative friends was, if you pick somebody who makes you 100 percent happy, you only get 47 percent against Obama,” said Catsimatidis. “We have to capture the middle in order to win and make a change in this country. Ninety percent of them stood up and said, ‘You’re right.'”
Mosbacher conceded there was “some disappointment” at Christie’s decision, but said the public flirtation with Christie wouldn’t make it tougher to raise for Romney, especially with Texas governor Rick Perry suddenly slipping in the polls after a couple of disastrous debate performances.
“Look, we’ll raise the money that’s necessary to beat Obama,” she said. “It’s not going to be any harder than it would have been a month ago, or two months ago, or six months ago. Now it’s pretty clear. Perry has dropped pretty quickly. And I would say that the race is now Romney and Obama. Quite frankly, the enthusiasm wasn’t there at the outset. He’s less conservative than a lot of us would like. However, our first and foremost goal is to defeat Obama. And we do believe Romney, in terms of independents, will be a strong candidate. We will coalesce behind him now.”
Mosbacher said the big bundlers in her circle “do not consider a Perry factor.”
I will tell you right now; if this is what the GOP elite are saying, I will most likely vote libertarian party again, or not vote at all. Because I will tell you this; if Mittens is the nominee, we are sunk. It will be four more years of Barack Obama. Further, I consider this very highly offensive, because the GOP has a good candidate in the primary that could actually beat Barack Obama; that being Herman Cain. On the bright side, this will keep that two-bit, racist asshole Ron Paul out of the General election.
I really had no intention of writing about this silly story; but, because it is to the point that it is starting to sound ridiculous, I felt some commentary was warranted.
Firstly, my positions:
Look, I think this sort of “Guilt by association” thing is nuts — to a point. What I mean is this — it is one thing to be a part of a Church, who’s Pastor says things, such as “God Damn America” and you, your wife and kids go there and interact with those people. It is another entirely to try to tie someone to, of all things — a rock, that was painted over long before you even rented the property.
Furthermore, I think Conservatives who are attacking Herman Cain need to shut up. Herman Cain is a black man and I do believe that entitles the man to make any comment about race or racism that he sees fit make, if he so feels fit to do so. Besides all of that, Herman Cain said he was not playing the race card and I do tend to believe him. Herman Cain is not Al Sharpton my friends, nor is he Louis Farrakhan; and I believe Conservatives should not be reacting to Herman Cain’s comments as if he is Louis Farrakhan or Al Sharpton either.
My biggest issue with Rick Perry is from Texas and that he possesses a bit of that Texas swagger. The United States of America, nor the Republican Party, nor the Conservative movement need another Texas swagger leader again. We had that for eight years in this Country and it did nothing for this Country, at all. We found this out with Iraq, the bailouts, no child left behind and all of the rest of the former President’s blunders. Granted, this current President makes the former look like a Rhodes Scholar. However, I do not wear partisan blinders and I know full of the blunders of the last President. My question to all of you is; do we want that….again?
Thus is the conflict of conservative politics — purity versus electability. If conservative politics were drugs, Ron Paul is Persian white heroin. The problem is this; Ron Paul addicts, as it were, just love him. The rest of us, are scared to death of him and his foreign policy! Therefore, to be clear here, I am, by no means, a Bill Kristol or a John Podhoretz type, when it comes to foreign policy — but a little common sense is needed when dealing with the Middle East. I will not belabor the point; I think you all know what I mean here. (I hope!)
Simply put, purity over electability will be the death knell of the Republican Party. Just ask anyone who was around in 1964 in the Republican Party.
…and does a decent job at it too. Basically, he now says the same thing as Romney. Most likely, he is trying not to sound like Ron Paul or worse.
The first step to fixing a problem is honestly admitting there is a problem. America’s goal must be to fix Social Security by making it more financially sound and sustainable for the long term. But Americans deserve a frank and honest discussion of the dire financial challenges facing the nearly 80-year-old program.
By Alice Keeney,, AP
As I said at the Reagan Library recently, Social Security benefits for current recipients and those nearing retirement must be protected. For younger workers, we must consider reforms to make Social Security financially viable.
These are the hard facts: Social Security’s unfunded liability is calculated in the trillions of dollars. Last year, annual Social Security outlays exceeded annual revenues for the first time since 1983. The Congressional Budget Office projects that outlays will be roughly 5% greater than revenues over the next five years, worsening as more and more Baby Boomers retire
via Rick Perry: I am going to be honest with the American people – USATODAY.com.
So, head on over and read the rest of that, it makes for some good reading.
Others: CNN, National Review, Washington Monthly, The Caucus, Firedoglake, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Ballot Box, Business Insider, The Maddow Blog, Weasel Zippers, Politics, FrumForum, Swampland, Cato @ Liberty, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, JustOneMinute, Daily Kos, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Campaign 2012, The Crawdad Hole, The Page, GOP 12, The Hill, Hugh Hewitt’s TownHall Blog, Pundit & Pundette, The Daily Dish and The Lonely Conservative — and more via Memeorandum
Ed Morrissey says he did not see this one coming. But, I did. I mean, why not? One moderate squishy Republican endorses another.
Here’s the official news via The Politico:
Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty endorsed Mitt Romney for president Monday, praising his onetime rival for his “leadership ability” and the “depth and scope of [his] private-sector experience.”
“I believe he’s going to be our party’s nominee,” Pawlenty said on “Fox and Friends,” predicting Romney would be a “transformational and great president.”
Less than a month after ending his own White House bid, Pawlenty was in sync with the Romney campaign’s message on everything from jobs to health care, to Social Security and Rick Perry.
Asked how he could endorse a candidate who he once mocked as the author of “Obamneycare,” Pawlenty said he’d spoken about health care with Romney and concluded: “Mitt Romney is 100 percent dedicated and committed to repealing Obamacare.”
Here is the underlying reason, I think and no, it is not a V.P. spot either:
“Gov. Romney wants to fix Social Security. He doesn’t want to abolish it or end it,” Pawlenty said. “Gov. Perry has said in the past that he thought it was ‘failed.'”
Pawlenty, who is joining the Romney campaign as a national co-chairman, said he wasn’t angling for any other job in giving Romney an early endorsement.
“I’m not going to consider being VP. I was down that path once before with John McCain,” he said. “That won’t be part of the future for me.”
Which is all great and wonderful; except for one little thing —- Romney is a habitual liar. So much so, that former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm had to call him on it once already. That is my rub with man; plus he is Mormon and I trust those people about as far as I can throw them. If you will read that link to my blog posting regarding Jennifer Granholm, you will see why I wrote what I did. The man just cannot and will not tell the truth about what he believes. He tells what he wants the people to hear. He also changes his positions with the winds of politics. You know, like a Conservative John Kerry?
Anyhow, here is Paw’s official suck up endorsement via NRO:
Great crises often produce great leaders. Unfortunately, sometimes the timing isn’t right, and neither is the leader.
Barack Obama came into office in the midst of a great economic crisis. Although hopes were high, he did not rise to the occasion. Now that the clouds of enthusiasm and excitement have parted, we see he was obviously unsuited for the task at hand.
President Obama has failed to meet America’s economic challenges.
His three years of spending, regulating, and taxing have not restarted the economy. Unemployment remains at a shocking 9.1 percent. Economic growth is hovering on the edge of a renewed recession.
Abroad, the standing of the United States appears uncertain and adrift under the failed leadership of a president who prefers chastising allies to condemning foes.
Fortunately, America may get a second chance: Mitt Romney is running for president, and I am proud to endorse him.
So, what does this do? Well, for starters; this essentially pushes John Huntsman and possibly Michelle Bachmann out of the picture. Romney now has an endorsement behind him. This also mounts a rather large moderate challenge to Rick Parry, who did say that Social Security was a “Ponzi Scheme,” which does drive off some of the older folk within the Republican Party.
As for Michelle bachmann; I do not see her as even electable. Her lack of real legislation record, her husband and her wearing her Christianity on her sleeve — all make her undesirable to people, who just want jobs and want this Country to stop spending itself into a hole. Tea Party or no Tea Party, Bachmann is just not my…well, cup of…tea.
The American people just want to get back to work and leave the soul saving to the Church — thank you very much.
Either way, this race should be very, very interesting in the next coming weeks.
Others: Hot Air, Taylor Marsh, The Lonely Conservative, Moe Lane, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Political Insider, Slate, Outside the Beltway, New York Magazine, Mediaite, The Crawdad Hole and Hugh Hewitt’s TownHall Blog
These are the Taliban and the men lined up are Pakistani Policemen: (Warning! Graphic Video!)
The Story via ABC NEWS:
In a new video which recently surfaced online, the Taliban appears to brutally and systematically execute 16 unarmed Pakistani policemen in what the terror group called a revenge killing.
The video of the massacre, which reportedly took place in early June, was posted online last week and confirmed by the Pakistani army today. It shows the policemen — who are not in uniform — standing in a line before a Taliban member who appears to be lecturing them. The man, who appears to act as the militants’ commander, accuses the policemen of executing six children in a previous operation and claims their imminent deaths are revenge, according to a summary posted with the video.
Several Taliban members then open fire on the group until all the policemen have fallen. A wailing cry is heard in the background after the initial volley. After reloading, a single fighter walks over each body and shoots them once more in the head.
But yet, President Barack Obama wants to try and negotiate with these monsters.
My friends, you do not negotiate with criminals and cold blooded killers; these people hate Liberty and Freedom. They hate Israel and Jews; kind of like the liberal left and some of the Paleo-Conservative and libertarian right. They are not rational, sane, human beings — they are cold blooded killers. We did not negotiate with Charles Manson and his cult — so why the hell would we negotiate with people like this?
My friends, consider this hallow warning from someone who sat through hours of footage on 9/11 and almost ended up in the psych ward because of it:
Dismiss me as an alarmist if you wish; I could not care less. But this is coming to America, if we fall down on the war on terrorism!
America must be protected; Israel must be protected, Liberty and Freedom are at stake! Radical Islam is a threat! Do not believe the lie of the Liberal-controlled, financed, and organized media — which is supplanted by the Government! The liberal media is in bed with the radical and no-so-radical Muslims!
Remember 9/11, Remember the Pentagon, Remember Flight 93 —– Remember America.
Remember this Video and Blog Posting come November 2012.
We need a President who will stand tall in the face of these bastards and not blink. Bush did it; and paid for it, with his Presidency — but he did not waver for a second. Mistakes were made, that is very true. However, in the end, we won in Iraq and we can win here too. We just have to not give up.
lan astaslem --- I will not surrender --I will not submit.
This is not a game, this is not fake; Ron Paul and his racist, Anti-Semitic friends, who hate Israel and everything related to it are the ENEMY! They must be kept out of the White House, at all costs! They are friends with these people! Consider me a soldier in that battle too.
In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and of in the Name of the Lord GOD Jehovah — Master and Saviour of this World and KING of Kings and LORD of Lords of this World and in the great, wonderful, world to come:
I hate having to write blog entries like this; mainly, because I happen to like Rick Perry. However, because I am a blogger of the truth — and because I do not want to see Rick Perry wounded in the election. I am bringing this point up.
Rick Perry has a religious wacko problem and I mean a big one!
The story comes via the Texas Observer: (H/T to Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs for pointing this out)
On September 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m., God’s messengers visited Rick Perry.
On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol. Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors. They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.
The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role.
The day before the meeting, Schlueter had received a prophetic message from Chuck Pierce, an influential prophet from Denton, Texas. God had apparently commanded Schlueter—through Pierce—to “pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule.”
Gov. Perry, it seemed.
Schlueter had prayed before his congregation: “Lord Jesus I bring to you today Gov. Perry. … I am just bringing you his hand and I pray Lord that he will grasp ahold of it. For if he does you will use him mightily.”
And grasp ahold the governor did. At the end of their meeting, Perry asked the two pastors to pray over him. As the pastors would later recount, the Lord spoke prophetically as Schlueter laid his hands on Perry, their heads bowed before a painting of the Battle of the Alamo. Schlueter “declared over [Perry] that there was a leadership role beyond Texas and that Texas had a role beyond what people understand,” Long later told his congregation.
Nothing wrong with that right? A couple of Ministers praying over someone right?
Well, it’s not the praying that is the problem; it’s the people doing the praying that is the problem.
This is the part of the story published that caught my eyes:
Some of the fiercest critics of the New Apostolic Reformation come from within the Pentecostal and charismatic world. The Assemblies of God Church, the largest organized Pentecostal denomination, specifically repudiated self-proclaimed prophets and apostles in 2000, calling their creed a “deviant teaching” that could rapidly “become dictatorial, presumptuous, and carnal.”
Assemblies authorities also rejected the notion that the church is supposed to assume dominion over earthly institutions, labeling it “unscriptural triumphalism.”
The New Apostles talk about taking dominion over American society in pastoral terms. They refer to the “Seven Mountains” of society: family, religion, arts and entertainment, media, government, education, and business. These are the nerve centers of society that God (or his people) must control.
Asked about the meaning of the Seven Mountains, Schlueter says, “God’s kingdom just can’t be expressed on Sunday morning for two hours. God’s kingdom has to be expressed in media and government and education. It’s not like our goal is to have a Bible on every child’s desk. That’s not the goal. The goal is to hopefully have everyone acknowledge that God’s in charge of us regardless.”
But climbing those mountains sounds a little more specific on Sunday mornings. Schlueter has bragged to his congregation of meetings with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, state Sen. Brian Birdwell, and the Arlington City Council. He recently told a church in Victoria that state Rep. Phil King, a conservative Republican from Weatherford, had allowed him to use King’s office at the Capitol to make calls and organize.
“We’re going to influence it,” Schlueter told his congregation. “We’re going to infiltrate it, not run from it. I know why God’s doing what he’s doing … He’s just simply saying, ‘Tom I’ve given you authority in a governmental authority, and I need you to infiltrate the governmental mountain. Just do it, it’s no big deal.’ I was talking with [a member of the congregation] the other day. She’s going to start infiltrating. A very simple process. She’s going to join the Republican Party, start going to all their meetings. Some [members] are already doing that.”
Okay, time to bust out with my Christian credentials here. As most of you know, who read this blog. I am a Born-Again Christian. but, I do not wear it on my sleeve really anymore. I have been “saved,” as the Christian World calls it, for 29 years. 21 of those years was spent in the Pentecost movement or type of Churches. I spent nine and a half years of that time in a Assembly of God Church in Southwest Detroit. So, believe me when I tell you; when it comes to this subject, I know full well, of what I speak.
When the Assembles of God denounces a group like this one here; believe me, it is for a very good reason. These people are kooks and I mean really, really, really bad kooks. The Assemblies of God in the spectrum of the Pentecostal movement are some of the most Conservative —- theologically speaking — Churches and people in the Pentecostal movement. These kooks that Rick Perry are hanging with, in that same spectrum, are the more progressive or radical kind. These people make people like Benny Hinn, Rod Parsley and the many others look like boy scouts! 😯
What I am basically trying to say is this; and I hope like the dickens that someone sees this and advises Rick Perry on it — Rick Perry, if he wants to be elected President of the United States of America, needs to put as much daylight between these people and himself as he possibly can. These people are the Christian equivalent of say, the Muslim brotherhood; except maybe they do not try to kill people. What they do want to do is this; they want to rip out the United States Constitution and have a Government that dictates its laws from the Bible. The problem with that is this; the United States of America was not founded as a Christian dictatorship, it was founded as a Constitutional Republic.
This group of people who Rick Perry is hanging with are a part of the radical, extreme Christian Right. If Rick Perry thinks that the left and the liberal media will not savage him for this sort of association; he, with all due respect to the man and the office that he now holds — is crazy.
During the 2008 election, the right — including myself —- utterly brutalized then candidate Barack Obama for his radical and Anti-American Religious affiliations. I feel, that what is fair, is fair. Because I am not entrenched in partisanship, I believe that Rick Perry should either give an account of why he is associated with these people or disassociate himself from them. As much as I know that the White House is now occupied by radical leftists — both former and current cabinet and staff members. I just do not believe that putting in a radical Christian Right President and cabinet is the answer to that problem.
We need a strong fiscal Conservative in the White House to bring this Nation back to its rightful place. We do not need some radical Religious nut-job in the White House. Lord knows, we had eight good years of that, and look what it got us. I say that as someone who suffered through those eight years. Also too, Do not think that I say this as a Fundamentalist Baptist with a “hard on” against Pentecostals. This is someone who has been around in the Christian world for a LONG TIME and I have seen what those people believe, and even as Pentecostals; they as nutty as they come.
In closing: Rick Perry needs to do the proper and right thing; or he should forget about running for President.
—
Cross-Posted at Alexandria