Perry tests his Texas twang in key states (Here comes the Lame Stream Media mockery)

My, my aren’t we in to our self as usual this morning... Most folks take you as an elitist academic snob who when asked what time it is will tell you not only how to build a clock but relate the history of the world according to your clock. Frankly most of the time you are a classic bore....

Obama will run against GWB.

That is a likely scenario. Cast Perry into Bush and run against him again.

First time Barky whines about what he inherited, Rick needs to give him the snake eye, tell him to man up and shut up about blaming PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH - after 4 years folks are tired of the excuses.

No going on defense. Offense from day 1. The street punk is not used to being treated like a man, by a man.

Really? I am a lifelong Texan as well, 60 years in fact. And I find your statements totally wrong. Texas does not have cheap land and has an abundance of high paying jobs. I truly do not understand where you are getting your viewpoint.

There is no debating the effects on our country regarding the tens of millions of illegal aliens in this country. The cost burdens are astronomical. Free medical, housing, foodstamps, education, taking jobs, use of natural resources, crime, underground economy, non assimilation, welfare fraud, etc... Rick Perry gets a “D” on illegal immigration. He was against the Arizona immigration law and he supported in state tuition for illegals to name a few. The following is a more detailed account on his immigration record. Sorry Rick you lost my vote.

In August 2001, Governor Rick Perry stopped by Edinburg, Texas, to deliver a speech before a gathering of Mexican and United States officials on issue related to the border. Emphasizing the cultural and economic connections between the two nations, Perry called for new investment in infrastructure and an easing of restrictions on border traffic to further deepen ties. He also took a moment to tout a groundbreaking new law that allowed children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition at Texas universities.

“We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, ‘we don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there.’” he said. “And that vision must include the children of undocumented workers. That’s why Texas took the national lead in allowing such deserving young minds to attend a Texas college at a resident rate. Those young minds are a part of a new generation of leaders, the doors of higher education must be open to them. The message is simple: educacion es el futuro, y si se puede.”

A decade later in June 2011, Perry traveled to San Antonio to offer an address to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials at their annual convention. This time, however, immigrant rights activists were gathered outside the building to protest and he faced a frosty, even hostile, reception from the guests inside. Perry again emphasized his pride in the state’s Hispanic population, but it was no use — a failed attempt by the governor to crack down on “sanctuary cities” with legislation that would free police officers to question people on their immigration status had poisoned the atmosphere completely. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who spoke before the governor, condemned Perry’s bill as “easily the most anti-Latino agenda in more than a generation.”

As Texas’ longest serving governor, Perry has had the unenviable job of balancing his states’ Latino population, business community, and border hawks over one of the most tumultuous decades for immigration policy in recent memory. But while his careful triangulation has kept him in office through three elections and a bruising primary in 2010, it’s also left a trail of resentment on all sides that could threaten his quest for the presidential nomination.

Talking Points Memo on FacebookOn the right, anti-immigration conservatives have swung the GOP towards a hardline position, undoing a years-long effort by Perry’s predecessor, George Bush, to bring Latino voters into the Republican fold. Once relatively uncontroversial positions by Perry have since become anathema: a bill offering in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants, which passed with near-unanimous margins in Texas, now faces major protests in Maryland.

“There’s no justification for it,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the hawkish Center for Immigration Studies, told TPM when asked about the Texas law. “It sends one more signal that being an illegal alien really isn’t that bad and that illegal immigrants can be integrated into the institutions of our society.”

Many credit the Texas bill with inspiring the federal DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for similar children. Republican lawmakers have blocked the legislation in the Senate amid fierce opposition from conservative activists. Perry has come out against the national DREAM Act, but continues to defend his support for in-state tuition.

“To punish these young Texans for their parents’ actions is not what America has always been about,” he told the New Hampshire Union Leader last month.

NumbersUSA, which advocates for low levels of immigration, recently gave Perry a D- grade for his various policy stances. While the grade actually puts him in the middle of the pack among presidential contenders (only Michele Bachmann is in “B” territory), Perry’s close association with the border guarantee that he’ll receive plenty more attention. According to the group’s president, Roy Beck, the biggest knock on Perry is his opposition to mandating the use of E-Verify, a federal electronic system for checking prospective workers’ immigration status. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) pushed Perry on the issue hard in her 2010 primary campaign against the governor, pledging in a debate to use the system on all state employees.

“E-Verify would not make a hill of beans’ difference when it comes to what’s happening in America today,” Perry fired back. “You secure the border first, then you can talk about how to identify individuals in an immigration situation.”

According to Beck, Perry’s quote was a major disappointment. “It’s tough because for most of us who are concerned about illegal immigration, taking away the jobs magnet is the most important thing you can do,” he said.

The issue hasn’t died with his re-election, either: recently, a coalition of Tea Party groups called on Perry to implement E-Verify requirements via executive order.

Perry’s potential problems with the right are the more immediate concern in the Republican primary, his recent efforts to shore up his conservative credentials with “sanctuary city” legislation could hobble him with Latino voters in a general election.

That fight began after Arizona passed a first-of-its-kind law requiring local law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status if they believed they might be in the country illegally. At first, immigrant rights groups were heartened by Perry’s reaction: an immediate pledge that he would not pursue a similar path in Texas. “I fully recognize and support a state’s right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas,” he said in a statement.

But despite his stated concerns about the Arizona bill “taking [police] away from their existing law enforcement duties, which are critical to keeping citizens safe” and using them to enforce immigration laws, he later threw his weight behind passing a bill that critics said would do much the same thing. While not as strong as Arizona’s approach, the Texas bill that Perry added to an emergency legislative session this year would take away municipalities’ ability to prevent their officers from questioning suspects about their immigration status. Police chiefs and sheriffs in Texas’ biggest cities, including Dallas, El Paso, Austin, and San Antonio, strongly opposed the measure, warning it would strain their resources and discourage illegal immigrants from coming forward with information on crimes. According to Perry’s camp, officers need more flexibility to confront potentially dangerous illegal immigrants.

“At the beginning he was positioning himself in the middle of the road, or at least not necessarily alienating Hispanic voters,” Adriana Cadena, an El Paso activist for the Border Network For Human Rights, told TPM. “He’s definitely moved more towards the right in the last couple of years as he’s been running for president.”

In addition to the sanctuary bill, Perry signed a Voter ID law that Democrats had blocked for years out of concerns it would discourage poor and minority citizens from voting. While civil rights groups noted that documented instances of voter fraud were extremely rare, proponents of the bill argued that it was necessary to ensure illegal aliens didn’t vote.

While border issues are sensitive territory, Perry has some upside as well. Like many national Republicans, he has taken to emphasizing security as a necessary prerequisite to passing comprehensive reform. Unlike other candidates, however, Perry can make the case that he’s actually contributed towards tightening law enforcement’s grip on the border. For example, he’s directed state helicopters to bolster federal patrols — an image that could play well in front of a national audience.

“The fact is there’s no governor in the country who has worked as long as he has to secure our borders, who has worked with two administrations to get them to focus on what is literally a war going on along the US-Texas border,” longtime Perry strategist Dave Carney told TPM. “It’s all about securing our border. That’s been very consistent policy.”

Another of Perry’s advantages may be that he hasn’t staked out clear positions on some hot button federal immigration issues, giving him some flexibility to tailor his pitch to both sides. He toed a careful line during the 2006 immigration debates, supporting a guest worker program to legitimize illegal aliens, but never backing Bush’s call for a path to citizenship, a provision conservatives derided as “amnesty.”

Actually this is the schedule, so you might save your “uhhhs” for another moment.

_______________________________________

2012 Primary Schedule

Note: Some of these dates are tentative as some states are will messing with their primary dates to jockey for a superior position.

Monday, January 16, 2012: Iowa caucuses

Tuesday, January 24: New Hampshire

Saturday, January 28: Nevada caucuses, South Carolina

Tuesday, January 31: Florida

Tuesday, February 7 (Super Tuesday): Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, Montana Republican caucuses, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah

Saturday, February 11: Louisiana

Tuesday, February 14: Maryland

Tuesday, February 21: Hawaii Republican caucuses, Wisconsin

Tuesday, February 28: Arizona, Michigan

Tuesday, March 6: Minnesota caucuses, Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia

Tuesday, March 13: Mississippi

Tuesday, March 20: Colorado caucuses, Illinois

Tuesday, April 24: Pennsylvania

Tuesday, May 8: Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia

Tuesday, May 15: Nebraska, Oregon

Tuesday, May 22: Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky

Tuesday, June 5: Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota

More information on the 2012 Republican Primary schedule and the changes which will happen to the 2012 schedule:

KANSAS CITY, MO. ? The Republican National Committee adopted a new schedule for the 2012 presidential primaries Friday, agreeing to a plan worked out in concert with Democrats and designed to delay the start of the campaign season.

The proposal, drafted by a special RNC panel, gained approval from more than the necessary two-thirds of the committee’s 168 members.

Party leaders hailed the vote as a historic change in the presidential selection process, one that would avoid the development of a single national primary in which states choose to hold their nominating contests on the same day.

The new schedule is designed to make it difficult for a candidate to rack up an insurmountable number of delegates early in the process, forcing candidates to campaign across the country.

Under the new schedule, no state would hold a primary or caucus before the first Tuesday in February 2012, in attempt to avoid a repetition of 2008, when the Iowa caucuses were held Jan. 3.

Iowa and New Hampshire would retain their status as the nation’s first contests, held in February, joined by South Carolina and Nevada.

Other contests would generally be held in April or later, although states would have the option of holding votes in March, provided convention delegates chosen at those elections were awarded to candidates in proportion to the percentage of the vote they received, rather than in a winner-take-all system.

FReeper announces breakthrough in cure for the Ad Hominem Distemper-an Analogue of Tourette's Syndrome

I have pondered a while now the best way to help you with your condition. It is indeed perplexing because the regular nostrums like Ritalin seem to be of no avail. I debated offering personal counseling and I considered that I could recommend some rehabilitation centers where they can, with modern drugs, ease you through withdrawal before you embark on a 12-step program. But these are usually quite expensive and, barring a successful intervention, the patient has a very poor prognosis because he is unwilling to accept the treatment.

All the modern authorities report that the majority of patients once released from rehab inevitably wander back to their keyboards and commit the sin of personal attacks within a matter of hours. Alas, the hard and bitter truth is that the AD HOMINEM DISTEMPER which afflicts you and so many others with access to the Internet, has no known cure, as a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine under this very title has concluded. The statistical relapse rate has been truly disheartening. That is, until now for I have by the grace of a benign Providence hit upon the solution to your compulsion which no doubt will be published in the next edition of the Journal under the working title, FReeper announces breakthrough to cure the Ad Hominem Distemper-an Analogue of Tourette's Syndrome. I will be pleased to send you a reprint upon request.

It all came to me as an epiphany when I contemplated your symptoms. The malady is easy to describe: The unfortunate patient, unable to deal with the substance of what he reads and bereft of factual answer for it, resorts to attacks against those whom he regards to be the author of his misery, much like the ancient Pharaohs who cut off the heads of messengers bearing bad news. Our modern Pharoah cannot, of course, physically decapitate anyone in ether-space so he becomes a mighty potentate astride his own keyboard and lashes out to assassinate the character of these cyber devils. After he has pushed the Reply button and sent his screed into cyberspace, he enjoys a rush of adrenaline and a psychotic high which, of course, is inevitably followed by a deeper low from which he cannot emerge until he finds another victim for his calumnies. The disease is progressive and up until now there has been no known cure. But I have found the certain cure and I am willing to give it away, free and without charge, out of Christian concern and solicitude for a fellow conservative. You may consider this to be charity but I am also motivated in the interests of science. Since my motives are altruistic you will observe below the absence of any claim of copyright for my breakthrough, I exact no excise for my good works. I do this not just to save you - but for all humanity, that is, to save all humanity from you.

My prescription, like all brilliant breakthroughs which are obvious only in hindsight for their simplicity and brevity, is analogous to the practice which has developed on the Rush Limbaugh radio program in which the caller, to express a whole series of complementary observations merely has to say: Dittos -and all is perfectly understood by everyone with no trouble or bother or any loss of time.

My antidote for your Ad Hominem Distemper is simplicity itself: Whenever you feel an attack coming on do not resist, for that only leads to the cold sweats, rather, you should embrace it because, after all, acceptance of the disease and your powerlessness over it are the first steps in your recovery. Do not try to avoid your keyboard but eagerly reach out for it. We know that you have nothing to say about the substance of the matter, we know that you've been confused by the reality with which you have been confronted, we know how feverish and insecure you feel as a result, we know how much you feel the need to blackguard someone. Nevertheless, go confidently to your keyboard without any anxiety that you will compulsively vituperate - as though you were some wretched victim of Tourette's syndrome - and take your keyboard stoutly in hand to gallantly type the following:

TOUCHÉ

(recent results of phase lll clinical trials have shown that the better course of therapy is to encourage the patient to write the word in italics and in bold letters because it seems to bolster self-esteem, a pathological deficiency common to all these unfortunates)

Now there, don’t you see how much easier and lighter you feel in your soul? Instead of betraying to the world the poverty of your intellectual estate, you have made a clean breast of your ignorance, which is different from rank stupidity, and it is anyway the first step in your recovery program. More, you will be awarded points because you show the world that you are a bigger man and by no means petty. The therapeutic effects of this balm cannot be overestimated. Phase llB and pivotal phase lll clinical trials have shown that, although my remedy may be sublime, it is not wholly perfect because it brings no cheap and easy rush, no high, but then no crash either, no withdrawal, no need for the next fix. Instead, you can have your life back.

Your friend,

Nathan

Good so you people can stop trying to anoint Ricardo Perry before things are done...

Thanks, I am definitely voting for Rick Perry now. If this abomination is against Perry, he must be what we definitely need.

Conservative Texans tried to warn people here that George Bush isn’t conservative too, but far too many refused to listen. The MSM said he was conservative Bush told them he was conservative and the Republican establishment said he was conservative so that was enough for them.

Slow down hoss.

I was correcting you by providing verifiable facts.

How the hell do you come to conclude that I’m a Perry support?

In fact, I’ve never posted anything about Perry ever.

Go back to your teapot you coprophagic clown.

I have been wondering about bgill’s hatred of Perry. I am beginning to think it is something very personal that she won't come out with. How about it girl friend, give us the scoop, maybe we would agree with you.

BTW bgill, my family has been in Texas as long as yours has been. We are descendants of “the old Texians” as my grandfather used to say.

IMO, people like cowboys and the Wild West. Reminds us of wide open spaces and freedom.

Can I get an Amen?

Virginia?

Ohio?

Man, that’s a winner. Thanks.

Yes thank you. I am able to comprehend the primary process and its purpose. “Ricardo”??? Uncalled for. It is the federal government’s job to protect the border, it does not fall under the duties of the Governor of Texas or Arizona or California, etc. Just ask Jan Brewer — the feds made it abundantly clear to her that it is not Arizona’s place to enforce immigration laws.

Really? Perry has a job creation history? That's news to this life long Texan.

I think a lot of things would be "news" to you!

Of POTUS candidates, who has a better job creation history? Speak to us, Biased One.

New Hampshire needs to understand how Texas government is set up. The governor is merely a figurehead and a paper signer. Nothing more.

If you believe that, why do you blame all the state's ills on the govenor? You can't have it both ways...unless you are really a Democrat, a real RINO.

You are becoming a big joke! If it's bad, it is all Perry's fault. If it's good, Perry gets no credit...has no power.

You have lost all credibility and you shouldn't be putting out misinformation like you know what you're talking about.

Shame on you!

The whole Kennedy family had a weird accents, peculiar only to themselves.

I guess they think it sounds patrician or something, but no native Bay Stater ever heard any other Mass. native talk that way.

Damn Straight. The trolls need go back to DU and suck eggs.. Tell em burt!

Good one and you are exactly right!

“Paak the caa Geaage and we'll waak” as it sounded to a little Texas girl many years ago. I can still crack my brother up with that Boston accent. LOL!