Tag Archives: Rick Perry

Aug 2011: GOP Presidenti​al Field – Yet Another Summer Disaster


What we Accomplished in Wisconsin

recall Progressives gained two seats in the Wisconsin Senate when Wisconsin voters voted to hold right-wing state senators accountable for their attacks on working families.We changed the game and seized momentum heading into the next battles, and many legislators across the country — especially those in competitive districts — got a message that there are consequences to their overreaching.The successful recalls of Republican Sens. Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper were in districts where PFAW was very active and PFAW enthusiastically endorsed both Senators-Elect Jessica King and Jennifer Schilling — two strong progressive women who will be strong advocates for working families in the Wisconsin Senate.

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And please take a moment to read a special message from Wisconsin Senator-Elect Jessica King to PFAW supporters acknowledging all your hard work and support >

Rick Perry: Uniting the Really Far Right and the Really, Really Far Right

Texas Gov. Rick Perry formally launched his presidential campaign this month and quickly shot to the top of national polls, where he continues to dominate. Maintaining his healthy lead by appealing to Tea Party, he recently came very close to accusing Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke of treason and has raised new concerns over his previous assertions that Social Security and Medicare were unconstitutional by calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and a “monstrous lie.” People For the American Way continued its coverage of the 2012 presidential primaries with a piece by PFAW president Michael Keegan exposing Perry’s cozy ties with the various factions which comprise the Far Right.

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‘What You Talkin’ Bout, Willard?’

arnold If you watched TV in the 1980s, you surely remember the show Diff’rent Strokes— which featured the iconic tagline “What you talkin’ bout, Willis?” It was produced by PFAW cofounder Norman Lear’s production company. When Norman heard some of the recent things coming from presidential candidate Mitt Romney — whose first name is actually Willard — it rang a bell.In a piece in Variety, Norman asks Willard Mitt Romney, “What you talkin’ bout, Willard?”

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Koch Brothers Sink to a New Low to Undermine Public Education

Koch A new video from our friends at Brave New Foundation — a part of their “Koch Brothers Exposed” series — details the disturbing rise of racial resegregation in one award-winning North Carolina school district. The story goes like this: the Koch-created and funded Americans for Prosperity supported a slate of right-wing school board candidates who ran on a platform that echoed those of 1960’s southern segregationists like George Wallace almost verbatim … they won, and now they are using their power to hurt the public school system by not only erasing the district’s commendable achievements of diversity, but hurting the quality of public education received by all the district’s students.People For the American Way and PFAW’s African American Ministers in Action (AAMIA) program are both incredibly proud to cosponsor the release of this video, and we’re hopeful that we can help shine a light on this latest right-wing attack on public education, racial equality and civil rights.

Watch the video and help spread the word >

Perry, Prayer, Politics and the Presidency

perry Casual viewers of “The Response,” including some political reporters who don’t pay a lot of attention to the Religious Right, may have watched Texas Governor Rick Perry’s prayer rally earlier this month and wondered what all the fuss was about.  Most of the time was taken up with prayer and praise music.  Few of the speakers seemed overtly political.  Nobody used the occasion to endorse Perry’s pending presidential bid.But context is everything, and the context for this event was remarkable: a governor launching a presidential bid by teaming up with some of the nation’s most divisive extremists to hold a Christians-only prayer rally that suggested Americans are helpless to solve the country’s problems without divine intervention. Some media coverage is missing the boat: the issue wasn’t whether it was ok for a politician to pray, or the size of the audience, but the purposes of the event’s planners and their disturbing vision for America.

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Pay-Per-View Congress?

PPV Showing a profound disregard for representative democracy and the First Amendment, several Republican members of Congress decided not to hold open-to-the-public town hall meetings for their constituents this August recess and instead, held meetings that required an admission fee — or as Politico put it, “strictly pay-per-view.”

Read More & Speak Out >

FEATURED VIDEO

Mitt Romney: People Person?

vid Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney turned a few heads this month when he told an audience at the Iowa State Fair that “corporations are people.”PFAW responded immediately by producing and running a TV ad in New Hampshire, where the Romney campaign’s focus has been.

Watch >

And if you have not done so already, please add your name to our petition to Gov. Romney telling him that he’s wrong, corporations are NOT people >

News & Blogs

Anonymous Attacks Against LA Progressives

laane This summer, an organization called Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) finds itself the target of dozens of baseless public records requests instigated by an anonymous right wing entity apparently seeking to intimidate and harass the organization.LAANE has long fought for policies to raise wages, protect the environment, and enhance community input on new box stores. In other words, they have gotten in the way when giant corporations have put profit maximization over the rights of workers, consumers, and communities. Perhaps that is why they now find themselves the subject of an extensive fishing expedition for public records that can be taken out of context and demagogued ad nauseam.

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Darrell Issa’s Two Hats

Rep. Darrell Issa’s ties to big business run deep, and as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, Issa has functioned quite efficiently as an arm of a Wall Street lobbying shop. He has demanded that government regulators back off from applying new rules to Goldman Sachs, and he has fought tooth-and-nail to deny the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and its yet-unconfirmed director Rich Cordray, any significant means to protect the public from fraud and abuse by the financial industry.

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Michael Keegan in Politico’s The Arena: Should disaster aid be conditional?

Republicans in Congress never even suggested “pay as you go” for two wars and massive tax cuts for the rich under George W. Bush, but they are now willing to withhold urgent aid from American communities in crisis in order to prove some point about their new found budget orthodoxy. Republican budget brinkmanship over the debt ceiling cost the country its top credit rating; let’s hope brinkmanship over emergency spending funds don’t cost Americans in storm-damaged states their homes and livelihoods.

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Taking it Back to 1987, Mitt Romney Teams Up with Judge Bork

Mitt Romney yesterday announced the members of his campaign’s legal advisory team, which will be led by none other than Robert Bork.This is interesting because Judge Bork’s views of the law and Constitution were so extreme that his 1987 Supreme Court nomination was rejected by the Senate.

People For the American Way aired a TV spot about Bork at the time…

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Anti-Gay Groups Rally To Defend Anti-Gay ‘Charity’ Group

A campaign spearheaded by LGBT rights and women’s rights groups Change.org and AllOut.org, encouraging companies to drop their ties to the Charity Give Back Group (formerly the Christian Values Network), unsurprisingly has the Religious Right up in arms. The CGBG “operates a sort of online mall, donating a portion of each purchase to religious nonprofits,” Michelle Goldberg explains. “Among them are conservative organizations like Focus on the Family, The Family Research Council, Promise Keepers, and a number of anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.”

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ACLU DNA, Lead Paint, and the Judges who Made it Through GOP Obstruction

As we like to remind people often, the current GOP senate has been shameless in its enthusiasm for obstructing judicial nominees just for the sake of obstruction. For instance, a PFAW memo on August 2 reported that of 24 nominees then waiting for confirmation votes, 21 had been voted through the Senate Judiciary Committee with no recorded opposition. Instead of sending through at least the unopposed nominees in a voice vote and moving on with its business, the Senate decided to keep these potential jurists off the bench for as long as possible  despite the pressing problem of unfilled judicial seats leading to slowed down justice. Ultimately, 4 of those nominees were confirmed by the Senate before it left for its August recess, and 20 remain waiting. (The Washington Postthis morning lamented that such “gamesmanship is not only frustrating but also destructive”)

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TGIF … Call the Whitehouse 202-456-1111 …Tell President Obama to go big bold and bad


just another rant …

In my effort to blow off steam, push back, and voice my opinion…

I hope all of us on the left… democrats, libs and progressives will continue to support President Obama we also need him to know we have his back and hope that our President Obama go big bold and badass. … Bring it to the People

What has our President done for you?

I will remind you President Obama among other things got and injected our economy with a 787billion dollar stimulus package even with all the Teapublican obstacles. The stimulus worked; he also implemented the fair pay act, chips, stopped the 8yr ban on stem cell research/treatment, implemented better fuel regulation for trucks , Sonia Sotomayor, 1st Latina was nominated and voted into the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan also voted onto the Supreme Court, got rid of osama, offered a historic health-care bill that passed, reforming immigration. Hey, for a more in depth list and analysis of President Obama’s first two years go to http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2010/1104_obama_galston.aspx

The facts are right in front of our faces and yes, the last 2yrs have been better than it feels…

I believe in President Obama and his abilities but there is clearly a wall put up against any changes or moves the President has been trying to make for ALL Americans contrary to what and how the Teapublicans want or will govern. We must never forget Rep.Mcconnell’s statement that his job is to make him a one-term president. Now, we have people in Congress doing and saying things about our First President of Colour and it should serve as a reminder of just how the Teapublicans really feel about him and this attitude and behavior is the dark cloud that Presidential candidate Rick Perry spoke of only the cloud is racism. I don’t know about you but a true friend would not say let alone feel that his friend is less than because of the colour of his skin. It was a sad day to hear the words coming from Sen. Tom Coburn.  There is definitely a difference in running for office and governing as Congress, The banks, Wall Street have all shown us they want their piece thus making the road to change a journey of bumps. Our President has said time and time again, he cannot do the work by himself,” We the People,” need to unite in solidarity to push back at Corporate America, because they definitely are not cooperating, we must push our Democratic Legislators, Representatives and our Congress, who are not acting as if we are in the majority. We all know the Administration needs to call for regulation of the banks…Wall Street and AIG types who seem corrupt. We need to demand that the Administration and Congress work and vote for climate change, education and true innovation so America can become a leader once again, the base voted for change we can all believe in, not for what will NOT ruffle some. President Obama needs to know that the base wants bold changes that include Energy and Climate Change, Education, Immigration reform, Bank regulations. Only move forward not what is easy because the fight is on and it is to save the middle class. That Sir takes a lean to the left … a hard left Sir.

We the People need to start speaking out against key nominations held up by Republicans. It is absurd, offensive, reckless and should show voters just how desperate Republicans are to bring President Obama down when both parties should be working together to solve problems instead of playing politics when our American economy and or safety is fragile is beyond me.

Time to forget bipartisanship because it ain’t there anymore

 

Other News …

 

Obama administration amends deportation policy

 

Gaza Violence Escalates After Deadly Attack on Israelis

Reports: Bank of America cutting 10000 or more jobs

Syria Said to Fire on Protests in Defiance of Global Rebuke

Stunning 3D Imaging Records Solar Storm Engulfing Earth [VIDEO]

CSPAN

GOP Candidates on the Campaign Trail Today

Congressional Black Caucus Holds Town Hall and Job Fair

Motorcyclists Ride Into Washington to Honor 9/11 Victims

Ride raises money for first responders

Senate Pro Forma Session

wily Wednesday… &some News


Just another rant

 Summer is starting to give us all the signs of being over

 However, we in the Democratic Party have to help President Obama give Teapublicans the boot in 2012. I want the Democratic Party to stop the madness and instead of beating up on each other Democratic members of Congress and the President need to get on the same page, do the Peoples Business, and make sure those viewers know that Teapublicans have done nothing but filibuster both Chambers of Congress. In addition, unless you have been living under a rock the President’s efforts to move the Country into the 21st Century, a better standing, status and an employment number much lower than we have currently still blocked by the Teapublicans. We must not ever forget that Rep. McConnell said that his job is to make President Obama a One Term President, which is also what Bachmann, is pushing when she gets media attention. While it is obvious, the Media has made their focus on the extreme right. We all know controversy is good for ratings but we the people must make sure that “the media” fact checks the extremist Presidential candidates who seem to be throwing out lies, misinformation, and BS about the first Black President. The media continually points out the disrespectful comments President Obama has experienced while Teapublicans seem to take respect for granted or expect it as if they are privileged.  I admit there are quite a few extremely right leaning politicians from the Teapublican Party running for office in various states all over the country and there is a slight possibility of at least one woman, specifically Michelle Bachmann becoming the Republican Presidential Nomination with another extreme rightie named Sarah Palin. This is not the year of the Woman but not one of these two ladies … candidates truly represents women in their best light. The fact is most women in the Republican Party are against the right to choose, and unfortunately, Bachmann thinks submitting to her husband means having respect for him, which, if I hear her correctly would be how she would be if President; well the definition of submission is as follows and like we all know Words matter right. So, read what Merrian-Webster.com says Submission means …

The Origin of SUBMISSION

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin submission-, submissio act of lowering, from submittere

First Known Use: 14th century

Most if not all conservative evangelical, Christians like Bachmann and Palin are against gays and some feel women in the Military is definitely a no no. To say these ideals are against family is to say i have a nose on my face. They are women who live different lives than the rest of us and if i am hearing them right they intend to push their personal ideologies on Americans and will try legislate them as well.   I certainly cannot image having these kinds of people in Congress let alone vying for the position of President. We must all GOTV in 2012 against a group of social conservatives that obviously are not our parent’s conservatives who may not share the Democratic view but were able to come together to solve our countries problems as Americans. The Teapublicans have taken risks since the midterm elections and are now setting their sights on the Whitehouse. Again, ruling by religion is a big problem for me because I see religion as a personal thing, which I would never force push or demand others practice. We have freedom of religion but what Bachmann, Palin, Perry maybe others seem to be pushing is just wrong, it is offensive, and dare i say against the whole separation of church and state… right? As right leaning Teapublicans try to out extreme, each other we all need to be aware of their lack of real substance, solutions or plans that would be good for ALL Americans.  Though I am no expert when it comes to individual rights, it is apparent that folks on the right feel Americans get too many entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and intend to take some if not all of my individual rights as a person of colour. The behavior from these so-called women on the right have embarrassed me as a woman in general on so many levels and continue to as they open up their mouths to say things that have moved from nasty sarcasm to what I consider extreme ideology to seemingly overt racism. The notion that any public figure or anyone who wants to call themselves a Public Servant and or Representative of the People should be speaking and representing one nation under god, not just a select few which if you listen closely, representing a “select few” is all I get from the conservative extreme right like Bachman, Palin and Perry.  The Teapublicans like Bachmann and Perry want Americans to accept a new way of life, which they call limited government. Unfortunately, that means and includes a ban on women’s rights, people cannot love or marry whom they want, people of colour and Muslims should not be trusted, religion and state are inseparable though our founding fathers were against it and yes, Teapublicans are against most of what our forefathers put on paper.

 I don’t know about you but the new deal sounds like the end of The only Pledge that should matter to all Americans … the Pledge of Allegiance.

News …

Hingham veterans want Pledge of Allegiance recited at town meetings

Sunday mishmash &some News


just another rant

As Americans and the World watches Congress battle on national TV, ‘the media” seems to be putting a face on who we need to blame for the apparent Congressional rift. I am a democrat yet the face of blame from radio and TV seems far to right of center for my taste. I watch, listen and take all the rhetoric in but as always question the source, sort out fact from fiction, remember what has been happening over the last 24months and ultimately decide for myself… but then that’s just me. The fact is raising the Debt Ceiling is the job of Congress yet Congress and some of our fellow Americans have decided to dump that responsibility on President Obama … unfair. I support President Obama and I still believe he will have to invoke the 14th Amendment but only because our inept folks in Congress which have managed to do less and less since the midterm elections have all but thrown up their hands to defer our default and demise to the President. I know folks think it would be a great win for him, a strong choice and yes, i thought so too, only problem is our credit rating will be downgraded thus raising interest rates on everyone

For years, Congress has managed to raise the debt ceiling without much afterthought. However, after the midterm elections it was clear JOBs were not important to Republicans or their extreme group called the tea party. Republicans on the State& Federal level saw this as moment to force their beliefs and make changes to the way Americans live their lives and yes undermine the President of the US. I get the impression that the agenda to ruin the first Black President of the US of A started the night of his win.  This has been a rough journey for our President and if he had a worthy Congress our move toward the 21st Century would be big bold and progressive. We cannot ignore how malicious how far the Republican Party has gone to block progress and even so, our President keeps trying with the grand deal as another example.  I feel both parties saw this as a moment to create change the other wanted to block it. The President saw the future in a grand deal while Republicans decided to use the debt ceiling & deficit as a tool, lest we even think about the reasons they want to amend our constitution.  I do not know what will happen on Aug.2nd and maybe the debt ceiling will be raised maybe not.  I do wonder if the world will see us the same and will our credit rating decline anyway or will a deal be made only to find that all future bills with revenue included be filibustered and will Congress continue to act so irresponsible. The thing i really fear is if this is just the beginning of an all-out assault to bring President down by any means necessary with the default being one of many signs along this long road to Election 2012.

Other News

Education takes a beating nationwide

Jets reach agreement in principle with Burress

McConnell: Debt Deal Close Without Tax Hikes

Berlin threatens new sanctions against Syrian regime

Verdict for 2 Americans in Iran within a week

Misrata rebel forces seize arms after routing pro-Gaddafi troops

Space enthusiast mourns Apollo, not shuttle

CSPAN

Debt Ceiling Debate

Senate Back for More Debate on Reid Debt Plan

Still no agreement between White House, Democrats, Republicans

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GOP Presidential Hopefuls Bachmann & McCotter on C-SPAN

Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at Western Conservative Summit

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Charleston, SC Featured on Book TV and AHTV