Clinton: "Support And Stand With Planned Parenthood"

Hillary Clinton name-checks some of the "talent" and "well-qualified"  numbnuts candidates running for the Republican Presidential nomination on their records on women's health:

Dumb And Dumber

Gimlet-eyed Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade pipes up during a discussion on why people have irrational fears (btw, like climate change, according to guest, the execrable John Stossel, who poo-poo's climate "alarmists"):

“As I remember in that series Land of the Lost,” Kilmeade remarked. “Do you remember that? That’s when the — yeah, Land of the Lost was afternoons on Saturdays… It was crazy to see men try to survive in times of dinosaurs.” (our emphasis)

Crazy, yes, but also profoundly stupid.  Ken Ham has a job as Creation Museum curator waiting for Kilmeade should he ever leave Fox "News."  The man has the brains of a dust bunny.

Turning to once- and- future failed Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party candidate for president Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry (Secessionist-TX), he's confident his manifest stupidity will not be a deal breaker in another run for the highest office in the land:

Outgoing Texas governor and presumed 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry isn't worried about his perceived lack of book smarts because that's not, he says, what a presidential campaign is about. 

"Running for the presidency's not an IQ test," Perry said in an interview with NBC News.

Sadly, wearing "smart glasses" has not changed the impression reality that Perry is a small-bore dimwit. Sadly, also, this is almost a requirement for running for office in Republican primaries, because the Republican base likes to see itself reflected in its candidates.

If You Can Read This, Don't Thank The Texas State Board Of Education

(click to enlarge)

(Ben Sargent, Austin (TX) American-Statesman)

This history curriculum is brought to you by Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry and the other knuckle-draggers of the Texas Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party.  Of course, the proposed science curriculum is just as bad.  Remember:  He can do for your child what he's doing to Texas' children!

Rick Perry's Dystopian Texas

From the Dallas Morning News (h/t Charles P. Pierce) evidence continues to mushroom that all is not well in future Lenscrafters spokesmodel Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry's "booming" Texas:

Texas leaders crowed Friday about the state’s latest job-growth statistics. “The Texas economic engine is strong,” Workforce Commission Chairman Andres Alcantar said. 

But growth isn’t the whole story. 

More workers die here than in any other state. On average, a Texas worker is 12 percent more likely to be killed on the job than someone doing the same job elsewhere, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of federal data. 

That translates to about 580 excess workplace deaths over a decade. 

Construction has contributed mightily to Texas’ booming economy. And the state’s construction sites are 22 percent deadlier than the national average. 

Forty percent of Texas’ excess death toll was among roofers, electricians and others in specialty construction trades. Such workers are sometimes treated as independent contractors, leaving them responsible for their own safety equipment and training. Many are undocumented immigrants. 

Government and industry here have invested relatively little in safety equipment, training and inspections, researchers say. And Texas is one of the toughest places to organize unions, which can promote safety. 

“There’s a Wild West culture here,” said University of Texas law professor Thomas McGarity, who has written several books about regulation. Texans often think, “We don’t want some nanny state telling workers how to work and, by implication, telling employers how to manage the workplace,” he said. 

The Texas construction industry flourishes in the state’s business-friendly climate, Gov. Rick Perry has said. 

“Let free enterprise reign, and be wary of overregulation,” he declared in a 2009 speech at the Central Texas Construction Expo. “All that regulation adds to your overhead, and you can’t operate at a profit.”   (our emphasis)

What are a few excess deaths from exploding unregulated fertilizer plants and unregulated, non-unionized workplaces when balanced against corporate profit margins, eh, Gov. "Oops"?  Clearly, he and his fellow sociopath Republicans, if given the choice, would rather people be hurt than profits. "Pro-life party," indeed.

That's as much an indictment of your tenure in office as your... um, indictment.

(Photo:  Booming Texas.  The unregulated fertilizer plant in West, TX, exploding on April 17, 2013, taking the town with it.)

Perry vs. Paul, Round Two

Prospective Republican presidential candidates (must control glee) Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry (Secessionist-TX) and Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul (Galt-TN) are engaging in a nasty back- and- forth (froth?) over a topic neither of them knows squat about: foreign policy.  After Oops' aide wrote an op/ed for him in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle the other day, we were all waiting for Ayn to, um, parry.  Well, wait no longer!

There are many things I like about Texas Gov. Rick Perry, including his stance on the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. ["Powers retained by the states and the people"-  segregation states rights!]  But apparently his new glasses haven’t altered his perception of the world, or allowed him to see it any more clearly. 

There are obviously many important events going on in the world right now, but with 60,000 foreign children streaming across the Texas border, I am surprised Governor Perry has apparently still found time to mischaracterize and attack my foreign policy. 

Governor Perry writes a fictionalized account of my foreign policy so mischaracterizing my views that I wonder if he’s even really read any of my policy papers.

Nice zingers, Ayn (or whoever wrote your response for you)!

The schism between the isolationist/Fortress America wing of the party (Paul) and the neo-conservative /Dick Cheney wing (Perry) is only one of the fracture lines in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party;  burn it down teabaggers (see post below) vs. country club establishment being another easily identifiable one.  Right-wingers would not hesitate for an instant to exploit differences in the Democratic Party, and Democrats should not shy away from returning the favor for Republicans.  It's not hard ball, it's smart ball.  Let's see if we can play it.

BONUS:  Gov. Oops did make that all-important photo op visit to the border (along with Fux News meathead Sean "Heil" Hannity).  Headline at Borowitz Report:   SIGHT OF RICK PERRY AT BORDER CONVINCES IMMIGRANTS THAT ANYONE CAN SUCCEED IN AMERICA.

(Image:  Paul and Perry - they pledge allegiance to the flag...)

Gov. "Oops" Perry and Texas' Race To The Bottom

Texas Rethuglican Gov. Rick "Oops" Perry has been traveling around the country recently touting his State's booming (that's "BOOM!", as in unregulated fertilizer plants exploding) economy.  The pinhead has recently been seen in a video running in Maryland inviting bidnesses to come to Texas for all that FREEDUMB!  (And don't forget their edumaction!) Today, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley took to the op-ed pages of the once great Washington Post  Bezos Bugle to offer a rebuttal.  Here's an excerpt, but you should read the whole piece:

Perry and like-minded Republican governors subscribe to the slash-and-burn economic philosophy — a belief that “less” will somehow become “more.” In Texas, he has implemented this vision with gusto, cutting taxes and slashing funding for critical middle-class priorities such as public schools, higher education, health care and infrastructure. The results? Texas ranks 49th in high school graduation, 10th in the rate of poverty and 50th in the percent of residents with even basic health insurance.

And while Perry likes to promote the job creation in Texas during his time in office, he leaves out a critical point: The jobs “miracle” he touts is driven by low-paying, non-sustainable jobs. This year, Texas — tied with Mississippi — leads the nation for the percentage of hourly paid workers earning equal to or less than the minimum wage. More than one in 10 workers nationwide earning at or below the minimum wage works in Texas.

Anyone who can listen to Perry, at this stage of his public life, and not look for the ventriloquist standing behind him seriously needs to smarten up.  

BONUS:  There's this, too.  "Conservative dystopia," indeed.

The Republican War on Women, Cont'd.

House Rethuglicans are pushing another "war on women" measure that would ban all abortions -- even those resulting from rape and incest -- after 20 weeks.  One of the bill's authors is crackpot Arizona Rep. Trent "Beans and" Franks,  who had this mind-boggling statement yesterday:

“The incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy are very low.”

Thank you, Beans and Franks, but you frankly don't know beans about the subject.  As noted here, there are estimates ranging from 32,000 to 83,000 pregnancies each year arising from rape.  Roughly one-third of the victims don't realize they're pregnant until the second trimester, beyond the 20 week limitation the Rethugs want to impose.

Once again, Rethuglican male politicians have weighed in on rape and pregnancy, displaying their bottomless ignorance as they attempt to dictate what women may do with their own bodies.  All together now,  Freedumb!!

BONUS:  Here's another Rethuglican male expert on wimmin, who thinks men's brains understand health care costs better.  If the guy only had a brain to begin with....

BONUS II:   Texas Rethug dimbulb Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry wants to make sure Texas women can't have it too easy when it comes to equal pay.

Today's Dispatches From The Stupid Party

From the "booming" State of Texas, where they sure know how to keep the public safe, boy howdy:

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas House approved a batch of bills Saturday to further soften gun laws that were already among the country's most firearms-friendly, allowing college students to carry handguns in class, putting potentially armed marshals in public schools and exempting the state from any future federal bans on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines or universal background checks.

Nullification and handguns in classrooms all in one legislative session!  Those are some busy Republican peckerwoods down there!  And while he's at it, the Peckerwood-in-Chief, Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry, wants to make a historical atrocity analogy about the Boy Scouts and The Gays (hint:  it's all about having the courage to discriminate!).

Speaking of nullification, let's see what Rethug Gov. Brownshirtback of  Kansas is up to:

... dozens of states are considering bills that attempt to nullify federal gun laws. One such bill became a law last month in Kansas. It exempts “Made in Kansas” guns from federal regulation and makes it a crime for federal agents to enforce federal law.

Attorney General Eric Holder recently wrote to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, saying the law is “unconstitutional,” and that the U.S. is prepared to sue Kansas to prevent the state from “interfering with the activities of federal officials.”

Now, Brownback has fired back.

In a letter to Holder yesterday, Brownback wrote: “The people of Kansas have clearly expressed their sovereign will. It is my hope that upon further review, you will see their right to do so.”

Let's see... if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be John C. Calhoun!

Finally, to Mr. Calhoun's cradle of secession State of South Carolina, where Appalachian Trail hiker "Gaucho Mark" Sanford may be on the verge of winning (or not) tomorrow's off-year Congressional race in a heavily Rethuglican district.  We hear from the estimable Charles P. Pierce (again) about how the disgraced former adulterer Governor could possibly, er, pull it out:

This has become a tribal conflict, and Mark Sanford's tribe is bigger, that's how. Most of the god-bothering yahoos were quite upset with Sanford's intercontinental sins of the flesh but, deep in their lizard brains, they know what counts and Sanford gave them the proper totem to hate and soon, the fever swamps resounded with whooping and hollering and chanting and the reek of burning entrails. This is not political. It is theological. It is not people going to the polls. It is people, maddened by thirst, wandering through the Sinai screaming their prayers into the undying sun.

Hate and stupid:  forces to be reckoned with in today's New Confederate/ Rethuglican/ Stupid Party.

Today's "Hair" Perry Cartoons

Texas dimbulb Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry (Rethug-BOOM!) is fast becoming the political cartoonists' greatest friend.  He recently criticized an editorial cartoon in the Sacramento Bee for drawing attention to his laissez-faire, "e coli / bridge collapse conservative" deregulation policies that many are blaming for the recent catastrophic fertilizer plant explosion.  First, here's a well-placed shot at the defender of the public his sacred reputation (click to enlarge):

(Jen Sorensen, via gocomics.com)

Now, here's the cartoon "Hair" Perry was offended by (but not nearly as much as we are offended by him):

 (Jack Ohman, Sacramento Bee)

Bet You Can't Keep A Straight Face, II & III

HA! You think the "Herb" Cain ad below was a hoot?! Check out these two from when Rick "Hair" Perry was runnin' for Texas Agriculture Commissioner! Head 'em up, move 'em out, Village People Cowboy Rick! You show that sausage who's boss! (big h/t to Wonkette)

Wingnut Pundits No Likee "Hair" Perry

Well you can be sure we missed the Rethuglican candidates debate/crackpot festival from Florida the other night. Apparently, a number of wingnut pundits weren't so lucky and chose to sit through the spectacle. Sad.

They didn't much care for Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry's performance. Here are a few brief reviews:

-- Wee Willie Kristol ("Weakly" Standard): "Yikes."

-- Eric ("Son of Eric") Erickson (Red State): "...train wreck."

-- (M)Ann Coulter: Perry was "losing debate with his own tongue."

Um, what took you so long to figure him out, numbnuts?!

"Hair"-Brained Cartoon of the Day

This just about sums it up (click to enlarge):


(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com and Balloon Juice)

Obviously, notwithstanding Irene, the Hackwhackers have the Power!

"Hair"-Brained Profit from Death Scheme of the Day

Here's what teatard wet dream Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry (Zombies!-TX) wanted to do back in 2003 to raise a little cash for the Texas State gummint (from the Huffington Post):

"According to the notes, which were authenticated by a meeting participant, the Perry administration wanted to help Wall Street investors gamble on how long retired Texas teachers would live. Perry was promising the state big money in exchange for helping Swiss banking giant UBS set up a business of teacher death speculation.

All they had to do was convince retirees to let UBS buy life insurance policies on them. When the retirees died, those policies would pay out benefits to Wall Street speculators, and the state, supposedly, would get paid for arranging the bets. The families of the deceased former teachers would get nothing.

The meeting notes offer the most direct evidence that the Perry administration was not only intimately involved with the insurance scheme, but a leading driver of the plan...

The governor’s office was even prepared to put down a little cash up front. If retirees balked at the notion of the state profiting from their deaths, Perry’s budget men suggested they could be persuaded for the cost of a pair of shoes, according to the meeting notes. If a retiree signed a contract allowing the state’s teacher pension fund to buy life insurance on them, the governor was prepared to give them between $50 and $100.

'Precious little for what they were giving up,' said the meeting attendee.

The notes make clear that the governor’s proposal deliberately targeted the elderly. The state was only seeking to take out life insurance on people between the ages of 75 and 90. At a separate meeting five days later, the plan’s proponents discussed the 'mental capacity' of these retirees to grant consent as one of three major technical obstacles to the plan, according to notes from that meeting."

That's thinking out of the casket...er...box, Hair!

"Hair"-Brained Constitutional Changes of the Day

Noted Constitutional scholar and Rethug/ New Confederate Party Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry wants a number of changes to the U.S. Constitution! (Not very "conservative" you might say.) Here's a short, incomplete summary of Hair's desired changes:
-- end the Federal income tax;
-- allow Congress to override Supreme Court decisions by a two-thirds vote;
-- end the direct election of Senators;
-- define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman; and
-- make abortion illegal.
In short, Hair makes Dumbya look like a raving librul.

"Hair"-Brained Comment of the Day

Today's "Hair"-brained comment from Rethug/ New Confederate Party Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry (Idiot-TX) is on the topic of abstinence education programs -- specifically Texas'. Sez Hair, over and over, "Abstinence works!" Um, not so much. (If only his parents had been abstinent during their marriage!)

"Hair"-Brained Maneuver of the Day

Wherein Rethug Gov. and future hair care product spokesperson Rick "Hair" Perry finds a sophomoric way not to answer to why he said Social Security was unconstitutional (!). This may be the Hair campaign's best tactic to keep Hair's foot from becoming permanently stuck in his big mouth.

"Hair"-Brained Comment of the Day

It's no secret that Rethug/ New Confederate Party Gov. and future hair care product spokesperson Rick "Hair" Perry is a climate change denier. But check out what he told a group in New Hampshire about why he thinks it's a hoax. It's our "Hair"-brained comment of the day (we expect this to be a daily feature as long as his handlers let Hair be Hair).

Hair He Goes Again

Texas Rethug/ New Confederate Party Gov. and future hair care product spokesperson Rick "Hair" Perry thinks Fed chief Ben Bernanke would be committing "treason" if the Fed pumps more money into the economy before the election. Really? "Treason?" As in proposing your state secede from the Union? With "ideas" like this floating in Hair's spacious cranium, it's no wonder that, this article notes, some Rethug power brokers are absolutely horrified at the prospect of this clown being the Rethuglican nominee. Join the crowd.

Here Comes Hair

Texas Rethug Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry is expected to announce his candidacy for the Rethug/ New Confederate Party nomination for preznit. Hair's platform will likely include a lot of prayin' to make our troubles go away, keeping the executions comin', turning our public educational institutions into free market labs (translation: fire all them teachers and perfessers!) and, if all else fails, secede! Hair is expected to draw support from fellow talibangelist Michele "Minnesota Loon" Bachmann. Yet another sad commentary on the state of the Rethug party that this featherweight with no accomplishments other than being elected by a constituency of yahoos is considered a serious candidate by the "Very Serious People."

(Photo: That hair, it's so... Reaganesque!)

Rick Perry - The Perfect Rethug Combination

"(Texas Rethug Gov. Rick "Hair" Perry) talks a lot and he's not very bright. And that's a combination I like in Republicans." -- Democratic attack dog James Carville on CNN Tuesday (via Chron.com). We like that all-too-common combination, too, except when it comes to voting in the national, as opposed to partisan, interest.