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The Washington Post is just reporting that Santorum is going to announce his withdrawal from the GOP primary today. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich have not indicated their interest in removing themselves. Some speculate that Santorum plans to team up with Newt so he can be on the first flight to the new American colony on the moon, so that he can teach aliens the ins and outs of safe sex on the moon.
Joe Kaufman is running in Florida, attempting to gain the Republican nomination to position him to run against Debbie Wasserman Schultz in the general election. In his desperation to promote himself, he used this encounter with Sarah Palin at CPAC as justification to say that he had Palin’s “endorsement.”
Jon Stewart gives us perspective on just who Joe Kaufman is. Recognizing the foolishness in wanting the endorsement of the Half-Term Ex-Governor, you could anticipate how much fun Jon Stewart could have with him.
For eleven-and-one-half years Rick Perry has been the Governor of Texas. As the Lt. Governor under George Bush, he took over as Governor when Bush was elected President. Thus when he ran for Governor in 2002, and 2010 he was the incumbent Republican. Texas is one of the “most Republican states in the United States,” with Republicans controlling all statewide offices, both houses of the state legislature, and Republicans have a majority in the Texas congressional delegation.
A. Perry Does Not Work Full Time
Section 658.002 of the Texas Constitution requires that all salaried employees of the state “shall work not less than 40 hours a week.” Rick Perry is a salaried employee and makes an annual gross salary of $150,000.00. Thus the Texas Constitution expressly required Rick Perry to work no less than 40 hours per week. However it is undisputed that Rick Perry is not, and has not, worked full time for the State of Texas for more than one year. As documented by Perry’s own calendar, during the year after he was re-elected in 2010, he has worked less than half-time, from the period of Nov. 1, 2010, through Oct. 21, 2011. In particular Perry’s own calendar revealed:
1. Of the 355 days Governor Perry was employed by the State he only worked a total of 164 days for “State Scheduled Business”. Thus, for 191 days out of 355 days, Governor Perry had no “State Scheduled Business.” That means he worked less than 50% of the days in the 12 months before November 1, 2011, or just 46% of the days.
2. Perry did not declare his candidacy until August 13th, 2011, and even before that he failed to work 144 days out of approximately 9 ½ months, or 285 days. That means that he worked less than half time as Governor of Texas, even before he declared himself a candidate for President.
3. Of the days that he did perform some type of state business, he failed to work a significant number of hours during a normal work day. Examples were provided.
Additional records have been received from the Governor’s office. They cover the last four months, from the period of November 1, 2011 through February 29, 2012. These records show that during this period he did not do ANY state business for 96 of those 121 days. Of the 25 days that he reports some “state business” he rarely worked a full day. For example,
1. Three of these 25 days when he reported State Business, 2-17,18, 19, were devoted exclusively to “hunting.” It is not clear from those records if he was hunting at his “Niggerhead Lodge.”
2. There is no record of how many hours during these days were actually spent hunting, as opposed to drinking, eating, or having sex.
For at least 10 other days he worked less than half time during each day:
3. On 12-25 he worked from 11:00 – 2:30.
4. On 12-22 he worked from 7:00 – 7:45.
5. On Thursday Jan. 19th, Perry announced he was dropping out of the GOP primary race.
6. On 1-23 he worked from 10:00-12:30, with 30 minutes before and after this state business when he was driven by his state paid chauffeur.
7. On 1-24 he worked from 1:15- 4:15.
8. On 2-2 he worked from 12:40- 3:00.
9. On 2-6 he worked from 8:30- 12:45.
10. On 2-7 he worked from 1:50- 4:45.
11. On 2-13 he worked from 1:15- 3:40.
12. On 2-25 he took one call at 4:45.
13. On 2-27 his only state “business” was his attendance at a funeral from 4:45 to 6:30
Thus for half of the 25 days that Rick Perry did some state business he averaged 2.5 hours per day. In conclusion even before and after declaring his intention to seek the GOP nomination for President Rick Perry worked LESS THAN HALF TIME!
B. Rick Perry Currently Receives Retirement Benefits from Texas.
Perry receives monthly retirement benefits NOW of $7698 per month, which brings his total annual salary, paid for by the State of Texas, to more than $240,000.00.
C. Rick Perry Promised that if Elected Governor in 2010 that he would NOT run for President in the 2012 race.
D. Rick Perry Lied.
On August 13, 2011, less than one year after the 2010 election, Rick Perry declared he would seek the Republican nomination for President.
E. Rick Perry’s Expenses on the Campaign Trail Cost Texas Taxpayers Over $3,600,000.00
Rick Perry spent 160 days running for President. During that time Texas taxpayers were charged for travel expenses of Rick Perry, for he and his staff, and for his security detail, including overtime. Those costs have been documented to be $3,600,000.00, and there may be more charges to come.
F. When the Governor is Out of State, Texas is Required to Pay For a Substitute Governor.
During the time Rick Perry was campaigning outside the state of Texas, the state was required to pay more than $32,000 for the Lieutenant Governor or the Senate pro-tem to do the Governor’s job. In addition to the salaries paid by Texas to David Dewhurst for his regular salary, the Lt. Governor was paid an additional $29,589 due to Perry’s absence, and Mike Jackson, the Senate pro-tem received $2,876.
G. Taxpayers Have Been Charged For Triple Costs For Perry’s Accommodations
In late 2007 Rick Perry moved into a lavish rental mansion in West Austin while repairs were to be made to the Governor’s mansion. In June of 2008 the Governor’s mansion burned, and required Rick Perry to extend his stay in the rental mansion. Costs for the rental property have been estimated to be $800,000.00. Knowing that the mansion has five bedrooms, seven baths, three dining rooms, a gourmet kitchen, and pecan wood floors, such a heafty price tag might be expected. Given the location of the mansion on 3.3 acres of land, who would question the expense?
Costs for the actual renovation of the Governor’s mansion are being paid for by U.S. taxpayers through the use of federal stimulus money of $11,000,000.00 and by Texas taxpayers through taxpayer dollars of $10,000,000.00. Thus while Rick Perry was on the campaign trail, Texas taxpayers were paying for his hotels, his rental mansion, and the Governor’s mansion.
H. Perry Re-built His Fire-Ravaged Home at a Cost of $40,000,000.00, while Texas Burned due to Budget Cuts of Less Than That Amount.
While Rick Perry found $40,000,000.00 to rebuild his mansion that burned, Perry cut 75% of the budget for volunteer firefighters or $34,000.000.00. Obviously his priority was rebuilding his own home rather than protecting the lives and property of the Texas taxpayers. Volunteer firefighters make up 80% of the state’s firefighters. Even though the unprecedented drought was recognized as early as July of 2009, Rick Perry endangered the people and property of the state by cutting funding for volunteer firefighters. Over the last year, while Perry was off campaigning, Texas burned. Over 21,000 wildfires burned 3.6 million acres. More than 1500 buildings burned while Perry was doing the very thing he promised NOT to do if reelected Governor. Just one of these fires burning out of control, while he was on the campaign trail was 14 miles wide. Instead of determining where he could find the funds necessary to support firefighters in the state, Rick Perry was giving away money to his political donors, and rebuilding his mansion.
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As a taxpayer in Texas, I’m fed up with Rick Perry. He is already suggesting he “absolutely” might run for President in 2016. If Rick Perry runs for President, or even Governor again, you can absolutely know that his opponents will simply capitalize on his record.
It is ironic that Rick Perry’s book is called Fed Up: Our Fight to Save America from Washington. Instead, a better title would be Fed Up With Rick Perry.
Since Sarah quit her job as Governor we no longer have access to e-mails sent by Todd Palin regarding politics. We just have to use our imaginations. If we could see his e-mail this morning, it might look like this:
To: The Newt
From: The Half-Term, Ex-First Dude
Re: My ass on the line
Hey Newt,
I put my ass on the line for you. Not when I sent you those girls, although that cost me a lot. I’m talking about when I endorsed you. Sarah said that it was too early to predict a winner, but I risked my reputation for you. Sarah has always looked like a fool, but now I look like one too. The cans are flying at my house, and one landed on my big toe. I can hardly walk! I’m losing the respect of my employees and customers, as I hobble around.
Newt, please explain how this endorsement stuff works! Is it to be completely one sided? When I endorse someone they are supposed to go up in popularity, not become the laughing stock of the Party. It was bad enough when you suggested we should do away with child-labor laws, but I understood your point. When you wanted to colonize the moon, I was all in favor of it because I bet they haven’t passed any laws prohibiting prostitution on the moon. I was having visions of a package deal…a trip to the moon complete with sex with the prostitute of your choosing. I even invested in some preliminary work on a moon suit with a compartment for the genitals, that was separate from the oxygen compartment. If things had gone as planned it would have had a built in pouch for space-suit condoms. For an added thrill travelers could get a picture with Sarah in their space suits.
You know I never thought you’d win the Republican primary. I just needed you to get enough votes to keep Romney from getting enough to get the nomination. A brokered convention would be like a wet dream; nomination without having to participate in a debate, or the need to spend money on a campaign. You didn’t have to win, just be a threat. Now it seems you are only a threat to children, and inhabitants of the moon.
Remember when we said “anyone but Romney?” Well, Romney’s got 646 delegates, and you have a pathetic 135. For God’s sake, Trig could earn more delegates than that.
Sarah went on the TODAY SHOW yesterday and had to answer embarrassing questions about Mitt Romney.
As early as the beginning of June of 2011 Sarah has attacked Mitt Romney.
In her efforts to criticize Mitt Romney, Sarah praised Rick Santorum. She said:
“If voters start shifting gears and deciding they want ideological consistency, then they’re going to start paying attention to say, Rick Santorum.”
In January of this year Sarah indicated that Mitt was out of touch with conservative ideals and mainstream America.
As Mitt was gaining strength, Sarah tried to divert attention from her previous attacks by suggesting that Romney was still “evolving” as a conservative candidate.
Then yesterday she had to say “Anybody but Obama” instead of “Anybody but Romney.” With the economy improving, the success of the auto bailout, the killing of bin Laden, its getting harder and harder to find anything to criticize Obama about. We are trying to pin the price of gas on him, but everyone knows that is just bull-shit.
Put yourself in Sarah’s shoes for one day and you’ll know what it is like to be a fool.
Sarah spent all morning working on a Face book post for you, but she won’t use it for you now. You are no better than a puppy kicker or a child molester. Put yourself in Michael Jackson’s shoes. Colonize the moon, and just walk away.
Rick Santorum’s Google problems are old news. Some of Mitt Romney’s car problems are old news too. Perhaps the most memorable was the report of Seamus, his Irish Setter, being strapped in his dog carrier to the top of the family station wagon for a 12 hour car ride on interstate highways, traveling at 60 or more miles per hour. The runny brown liquid dripping down the back windshield didn’t seem to phase Mitt, but Tagg, Mitt’s oldest son, thought it was “gross.” After all the kids joined Tagg in voicing their disgust, Romney did what any other “common sense conservative” would do and hosed down the car and the dog, before continuing on his journey. It was an example of what was identified by Fox News as “emotion-free crisis management.” Most reporters who have written about this incident, have suggested that Romney was heartless, and abusive to his family pet. Yet some might suggest that this episode was staged. After all, no Christian Mormon would intentionally torture the family pet. Instead maybe Romney was sending a message to terrorists around the world: “If I’d do this to my family pet, think what I’d do to you!”
The second “car problem” is the sheer number of cars owned by the Romneys. We know Mrs. Romney has at least two Cadillacs. Mitt himself has admitted to owning a Mustang,
and a couple of trucks, although he may no longer own the Dodge.
The more recent “car problem” for Mitt is the car elevator that he plans to install in his California Beach home. The elevator itself is estimated to cost $60,000.00 and the cost of the lobbyist used to expedite the approval of the permit was $20,000.
Contrast Romney’s attitude toward elevators for his cars to installation of elevators for disabled Americans. As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney was hostile to requirements for elevators imposed by the Americans Disabilities Act (ADA). In two items flagged by a Democratic operative, Romney vetoed legislation that would have improved elevators for the disabled. On another occasion, in June 26, 2006, Romney vetoed an improvement project with the price tag of $40,000, with his line item veto, preventing an elevator from being brought into compliance with standards set in the ADA. On that same day Romney vetoed another project to bring another facility into compliance with the ADA.
It is not bothersome to me that Romney is worth Millions of dollars. What bothers me is that Romney has lost touch with the reality of most American families. Just because Mitt can afford an elevator for his cars, doesn’t mean he SHOULD spend that money on such an extravagance. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, was worth substantially more than Mitt Romney; Billions rather than Millions. At one time Sam Walton was the richest man in the world. He wore clothes from Walmart and drove a 1979 Ford Half-ton pick up truck because he needed a vehicle in which to haul his dogs.
As a child he helped his mom run a small milk business. Sam describes that “we learned how much hard work it took to get your hands on a dollar, and that when you did, it was worth something.”
Mitt Romney has been described as having created a “ coast-to-coast buffer zone of luxury.” It is not the fact that he can afford the car elevator, it is that he would spend his money on it! How could the President address the economic crisis facing our country if he can’t remember how hard it was to get his hands on a dollar, and what it was worth when he earned it?
As of March 22nd, Republicans had not offered an opinion about the killing of an unarmed teen by the name of Trayvon Martin. Eight hours ago, and after over a million voters had signed a petition demanding justice, Republicans decided it would be safe enough to speak out in favor of an inquiry. This is not my idea of leadership or governance. It represents a group of followers who are so afraid to do the right thing, and instead are only interested in doing the popular thing. At this time of crisis, it shouldn’t have taken almost a month for these politicians to speak up. Were they waiting for an invitation from their financial supporters, or just making sure George Zimmerman was not a contributor to their campaigns?
The GOP candidates have offered opinions on abortion, contraception, the economy, the price of a gallon of gas, the killing if Osama bin Laden, who should have sex where and when and for what purpose and with whom. Thus it is not surprising that the the Republican candidates would comment on the controversy surrounding the slaughter of Trayvon Martin, and the subsequent cover up by the police. Here is a complete report of each and every comment from each Republican contender:
Mitt Romney: ________________
Rick Santorum: ________________
Newt Gingrich: _________________
Ron Paul:__________________
Sarah Palin isn’t the Governor or a candidate. The shooting occurred on Feb. 26 th, almost a month ago, and Sarah Palin hasn’t Tweeted, written a Facebook post about it, or done an interview on Fox about this tragedy.
SOME Republicans, like Rick Santorum, opposes not only abortion, but contraception or sex for any purpose other than procreation. It was easy to dismiss Rick Santorum as a radical conservative, and believe that he didn’t represent the mainstream of thought in the Republican Party. Mitt Romney seemed to be the favorite candidate of most Republicans. Although I was an Obama supporter, I didn’t think it would be the end of the country as we know it, if Romney was elected. Today I realize the urgency of electing Democrats in the 2012 elections. It’s no longer just the idea of supporting Obama, but the fear of a Republican President that should motivate all women to do their part.
On Thursday a vote occurred in the Senate on an amendment that would allow any employer to deny contraceptive benefits to its employees. The current law already allows exemptions for religious institutions and religiously-affiliated institutions to deny contraceptive benefits for religious reasons. The amendment was sponsored by Republican Senator Roy Blunt, and co-sponsored by Marco Rubio. The amendment was narrowly defeated in a vote of 51-48. There are currently 51 Democratic Senators in Congress.
Mitt Romney was asked on the campaign trail if he supported this amendment. Initially his response was the logical response, of “NO”. However he changed his answer after realizing that that would not be in keeping with the Republican position. Romney has been branded as the flip-flopper, and on virtually every issue upon which he has flipped, he was first in favor of the view of the Democrats, and then changed after realizing that his position was inconsistent with the view of the Republicans.
Here are facts that relate to oral contraceptives:
• 100 million women worldwide use birth control pills, and almost 12 million of them live in the United States.[6][7]
• Use of oral contraceptives, overall, slightly reduces all-cause mortality in women. The use of birth control pills has been found to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer in later life by 50%, and reduces the risk of endometrial cancer by 50%. They reduce the risk of colorectal cancer, and the use of the pill also reduces the symptoms of polycystic ovary syndrome, and reduces the risk of anemia.
• Oral contraceptives are also used for non-contraceptive uses. Those include polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, adenomyosis, menstruation-related anemia, dismenorrhea, mild-moderate acne, dysfunctional uterine bleeding, and painful menstruation.
However consider these facts related to contraception:
• Approximately half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned.
• These three million unplanned pregnancies include nearly 1.4 million pregnancies that resulted in a live birth.
• Of these three million unplanned pregnancies, 1.3 million ended in abortion. The only logical conclusion is that ending contraception would result in more abortions.
• In addition to being associated with serious consequences for parents and their children, unplanned pregnancies also lead to substantial direct medical costs due to the births, abortions, and miscarriages that result from these pregnancies.
The direct medical costs of an unplanned pregnancy in 2002 was estimated to be 5 Billion Dollars. Those costs included only the cost associated with the pregnancy, birth, and/or termination. Those costs included:
o – costs that are associated with the births ($3.9 billion),
o- abortions ($797 million),
o – miscarriages ($266 million)
These costs are minimal to considering the cost associated with educating and providing health care to the millions of people that would be citizens of this country if birth control was not allowed. In fact, a 2003 evaluation by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined that the estimated net Medicaid savings (federal and state funds) over a two-year period ranged from $1.3 million in New Mexico to $76.2 million in California. Based on the estimates of the direct medical costs of unplanned pregnancy, researchers found that contraceptive use saves nearly $19 billion in direct medical costs each year.
The cost of raising one unwanted child is prohibitive and constitutes a huge burden on society.
The Republican Party has labeled itself the fiscally conservative party. Yet their socially backward policies dictate that they are fiscally irresponsible. At a time when the economy and unemployment are the most important issues to voters, it is unbelievable that Republicans generally advocate such irresponsible social policies. It is even more amazing that any woman would vote Republican, given the attack on women inflicted by the Republican party. In the election of 2008, 35,900,000 women voted for Barack Obama, which constituted the majority of the voters for Obama. I expect that there will be even more women turning out to vote for Obama in 2012.
Headlines this morning hail Mitt Romney as the winner of the Michigan Primary. With 99% of the votes counted Romney is reported to have received 41% of the vote and Rick Santorum only received 38%. However the actual winner is yet to be determined. As of 8:30 am this morning, the number of delegates awarded to Romney and Santorum was 11 each. Michigan has 14 congressional districts and each receives two delegates. Two more delegates go to the candidate who receives the most votes. Thus there is a total of 30 delegates. With 22 of the 30 delegates awarded, it is still not clear who actually won the Michigan Republican Primary.
Given the outrageous things said by Romney and Santorum leading up to this primary, the real winner was President Obama.
Romney made memorable comments about his love of the tree height in Michigan, and tried to relate to the people involved in the auto industry by explaining that his wife drives two Cadillacs. Santorum called the President a snob for encouraging higher education. Here is what our President said.
Rick Santorum announced that the notion of the separation of church and state made him want to “throw up.” Yet even more amazing was Rick Santorum’s robo calls encouraging Democrats to vote for him. The reasoning was that Obama would more easily beat him than Mitt Romney, so Democrats should vote in the Primary for him. Think about this. Rick Santorum was encouraging Democrats to vote for him, not because they agreed with his policies, but because he was more likely to loose to Obama than Romney. The word “traitor” comes to mind. By making these robo calls, Santorum was spending campaign money to encourage a scenario where the Democratic candidate would more easily win in November. We knew Santorum had a problem with abortion, homosexuality, contraception, separation of church and state, and that he has a “google-problem.”
It now seems that he has a “Republican-problem.”
When a serial adulterer endorses another serial adulterer,
the predictable result is to impress more serial adulterers, but not voters. When Todd Palin endorsed Newt Gingrich, Newt was “thrilled.”
Newt was especially thrilled because the endorsement came the day before the New Hampshire primary. He explained that it was the “extra boost we need to really get us on takeoff here going into the primary tomorrow.” The funny thing is that Newt didn’t come within the top three in the New Hampshire race, with only 10% of the vote. The top three finishers were:
Romney 39%
Ron Paul 23%
Huntsman 17%
Gingrich was not in the top three finishers in Iowa either. They were:
24.6 Romney
24.5% Santorum
21.4% Paul
Gingrich was wrong. The Palin endorsement was not a boost at all. Todd explained that he endorsed Gingrich because Newt was a “reformer.” By “reformer” Todd must have identified Newt as being much like his wife who was also a “reformer.” Both quit their jobs; Newt as the Speaker of the House, and Sarah as Governor. Both were found guilty of ethics violations; Sarah by the bipartisan committee in the Troopergate matter, and Newt in the ethics investigations by the House.
Newt attacked Romney as being full of “pious baloney” . When the media accused Todd Palin of having a relationship with a prostitute named Shailey Tripp, Sarah Palin said that was “lies” too. It appears voters in New Hampshire don’t mind eating baloney.
Keep in mind that although New Hampshire is being declared Romney’s big win, only 12 delegates were chosen. If you add up New Hampshire’s 12 and Iowa’s 28 delegates, you get a grand total of 40 delegates chosen so far for the Republican convention. There are 2,286 delegates that will attend the convention. Thus Iowa and New Hampshire constitute only 2% of all the delegates that will be chosen.
Thus, it is still unclear who will ultimately prevail as the Republican candidate for the 2012 Presidential Race, but it is clear that an endorsement by Todd Palin may only signal who the loser will be.
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