Seriously, what in the hell is wrong with the GOP?

Increasingly, I'm getting the feeling that there's something odd afoot. It only requires a scant amount of skepticism - at this point - to wonder just where the GOP is heading with this cast of thousands that are in the longest debate season in the history of the country.
Not a day goes by that multiple miscues, revelations and assertions come to the fore. Notice I didn't say "rumors." The truth is out there, and it's way out there. I'm wondering if there's some master plan to use all these candidates as the stalking horse for someone else who will miraculously arise from an as-yet unknown hidden location. Or, they really have no chance of winning the presidency and figure that the attention, which is stupid at the reality TV level, can somehow draw a big audience/electorate.
Just today, we got these gems:

• Sir I Do Of Newt (a.k.a. The Marrying Man) said that the 99% movement was "historically inaccurate" and suggested that President Obama should repudiate it. And the non-rich should vote Republican why now? He also said today that after he 1) married one of his high school teachers, 2) cheated on her and told her while she was being treated for cancer that he wanted a divorce, 3) cheated on the second wife with another woman, while prosecuting President Clinton for his infidelity and 4) married the mistress, he "had to go to God and ask for forgiveness." I think even God would have a hard time forgiving this clown but apparently long-term memory loss Republicans don't.

• Governor Good Hair, speaking to students at St. Anselm College in the pivotal state of New Hampshire, made this statement: "Those of you that will be 21 by November the 12th, I ask for your support and your vote." Gov. Perry has won so many elections, you'd think he'd know - as do I'd safely say 90% of the populace - that the voting eligibility age is 18. The presidential election will be held, as Perry should know if he wants to actually be in it, Nov. 4, 2012.

• The Pizza Dude (a.k.a. The Ladies Man) is "reassessing" his foolish campaign in the light of the appearance of his supposed mistress. "Reassessing" a return to obscurity, perhaps?

I can hardly wait for tomorrow.

Cain A Clown Of Another Circus

"Where do they teach you to talk like this? In some Panama City,  'sailor wanna hump-hump' bar, or is it getaway day and your last shot at his whiskey? Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here."

 Jack Nicholson as Melvin Udall in James L. Brooks's "As Good As It Gets"

Let me make one thing extremely clear: Herman Cain has no business running for president. As David Brooks said on NPR this afternoon, the office of the presidency of the United States is a serious job that needs a serious person doing it. The ex-pizza dude and newly self-declared Koch brother Cain is merely filling a void. If he wasn't there to say stupid shit, Sister Sarah would be. It even takes some of the spotlight away from Governor Good Hair's uh, something-induced comments earlier in the week.
For the uninitiated, the Koch Brothers are, in a word, ruining the entire American political process. Charles and David Koch are each worth about $25 billion; if they were just one person, that person would be the third wealthiest in the world. Koch Industries is the second largest privately-held company in the US, into oil refining, chemical, paper products and financial services company with revenues of a $100 billion a year. They spent $40 million yanking the House back so it could do absofreakin'lutely nothing. And, they've pledged to raise $200 million to defeat President Obama next year.
Now, these are the people Cain was referring to today when he said, ""Just so I can clarify this for the media, this may be a breaking news announcement for the media: I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother. Yes. I'm their brother from another mother! And proud of it!" How incredibly stupid, to stand up in front of God and everybody, as they say in Indiana, and admit to a tie bordering on the familial. The Koch Brothers are kind of a reverse Tom Joad. Where Steinbeck's Dirt Bowl refugee said, "I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there." With Chuck & Davey, it's their money that's everywhere. It's their money, and the influence it buys, that causes "a fight, so hungry people can eat," aka Occupy Wall Street, Oakland, etc. And it's their money that leads to a cop - or a rent-a-cop in some cases - beatin' up a guy," or opting for pepper spray.
Ha-Ha Herman's remarks were made in front of a fawning Americans For Prosperity gathering. That group was founded by the Koch Brothers, as was the conservative "think tank" the Cato Institute. 

To pledge fealty to the Koch Brothers, who make the James Brothers look like nice people, should be enough alone to sink this "candidacy." If not, he's spit out a bunch of goofy shit the last few weeks. Such as:

• Telling Piers Morgan, in re: homosexuality, "although people don't agree with me, I happen to think that it is a choice."
• Telling Fox "News" on the morning of October 31, in re: his evident pattern of sexually harrassing women, "If there was a settlement, it was handled by some of the other officers at the restaurant association." Then, that evening he told PBS, he was aware that a settlement had been reached. By the next morning, he told HLN, "after 12 hours during the day, many events, many interviews, I was gradually able to recall more and more details about what happened."
• On the PBS Newshour, he told Judy Woodruff, he suspected China was “trying to develop nuclear capability,” despite having nuclear weapons since 1964.
• On November 1, he told Billo the Clown that putting more missiles near Iran would be a certain invitation for the nation to attack us. Cain appeared unfazed: “that’s alright.”
• Although it is officially illegal here in Backwardshoma, Cain said "here’s this creeping attempt … to gradually ease Sharia Law and the Muslim faith into our government.”
• Oh, and he's also said what he'll do when he's president. Man, that's so funny. Forget that other stuff. 

Best-case scenario: Willard wraps up the nomination and Ha-Ha Herman delivers a Pat Buchanon-esque scorched earth speech at Tampa next summer.

Pizza Dude Indeed

Not to be crude about it, but Herman Cain is full of shit. His 9-9-9 plan is idiotic, simplistic and, frankly, naive. Of course, those words could be used to describe his campaign, as well as those who support him. Whoever those 100 or so people are.
I am thrilled daily by watching this GOP group of contenders go up and down, in and out. It's kinda like "Groundhog Day." Every morning I wake up and Barrack Obama is the president. Each day, a GOP candidate does something different to become the "front-runner." Then, I wake up the next day and Barrack Obama is the president and a GOP candidate does something different to become the "front-runner" but everyone else is exactly the same.
Just this past week, Shecky Palin, Rudy "a noun, a verb and 9/11" Giuliani and Chris "Michelin Man" Christie all decided not to run. Now, if someone could tell Sir I Do of Newt, Mormon #2 Jon Huntsman, Michele "Batshit" Bachmann, crazy Senator Rand Paul's crazier Congressman father Ron Paul, Gary Johnson, Buddy Roemer  and Rick "you belong in a" Santorum how foolish a way they're spending their time.
That leaves Mormon #1 Mitt Romney and the Rev. Gov. Rick Perry. Oooh, I'm scared. Simply put, Romney has a "religious" problem and Perry has an obliviousness problem.
Again, "ooh, we're so scared."
The late, great Molly Ivins, the official patron saint of this blog, used to write at length about the weak powers held by the governor of Texas. Essentially, the governor of Texas is much like the Queen of England. For example, in Texas, the lieutenant governor puts forth the state budget.
Still, the Rev. Gov. Perry has been able to put his footprints all over the great nation of Texas. He's been governor since Shrub (thanks again, Molly) resigned to accept a Supreme Court appointment to the presidency. Under the Rev. Gov. Perry, Texas has the largest percentage of children uninsured, the state has created the largest amount of jobs in the country over the past 2 years, but most of those are either government jobs or jobs paying at or below the minimum wage.
"Governor Good-Hair," from Molly again, in many ways is George Bush, if he was Texan. Calling George W. Bush Texan is about like calling David Ortis a Yankee. Perry wants a Constitutional Amendment for social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. He has joked around with the concept of succession and calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Perry also disputes global warming. After Texas set a record in 2011 for the hottest summer anywhere, ever, in the lower 48 states, Perry said that comments by President Obama that linked the resulting wildfires to climate change were "outrageous."
As for Romney, he never met a side he couldn't support. He used money from the federal government that he would have to return if not used to create the model for the Barrack Obama healthcare reform. He's against it now. He's been pro-choice but now he's pro-life. He initially opposed same-sex marriage as governor of Massachusetts but later advocated for equal benefits.
And, there's the Mormon question. True, the Church of Jesus Christ does accept the Bible as one of their sacred texts. The other is of course The Book of Mormon. It presented itself in a language no one has ever heard of on gold plates that no one else has ever seen. Joseph Smith and then Brigham Young kept trying to find a Utopia. They wound up in Utah, in what is as close to a religious state as any in the country.
I want to know what Romney believes. I'm not one that generally gives a whit about the religiosity of the President. Unless he's a member of a cult and I haven't heard anything yet about the Mormon Church that makes me think it's not a cult.

GOP to non-rich: Drop Dead!

By invoking the 60-40 rule that only they seem to have the ability to do, the U.S. Senate Republicans essentially killed President Obama's jobs bill tonight. Democratic Senators Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana, both facing difficult re-election campaigns next year, joined the GOP.

So, just in case you're not keeping count of all the things the GOP is officially against, as demonstrated by the candidates and responses given at the 300+ and counting GOP debates and by their rejection of the jobs bill, here's a reminder of some positions the Grand Old Party has:

• Let the uninsured die. After all, it is their own fault.
• Kill the guilty, or at least those found to be guilty, and don't give it a second thought.
• Don't support Planned Parenthood, despite the fact that contraception makes up for 35% of their services and abortions only 3%.
• It's okay to boo a member of the U.S. military.
• If you're unemployed and/or not rich, that's also your fault.
• If two Democrats play golf with two Republicans, they're the, uh, three? stooges.
• The Obama Administration, which has been hamstrung at every turn by a recalcitrant GOP that refuses, on some kind of bizarre principle, to vote in favor of anything he is in favor of, is a worse tragedy than the 9/11 attacks that killed 2,752 people.
• We need to take the country back, they say, from big business, except when it comes to accepting big checks from big bidness, then in that case not so much.
• Arab Spring protesters are fighting to overthrow oppressive dictators. Occupy Wall Street protesters are an angry mob, advocating anarchy and class warfare and are actually participating in "Obama demonstrations."
• Old, wealthy white people dressed like Benjamin Franklin and wearing teabags, holding misspelled signs and racist Photoshopped pictures of President Obama are patriots.
• Extraordinary rendition and enhanced interrogation techniques led to the capturing of Osama bin Laden. Except they didn't. It was FBI interrogators putting the pieces together. (The CIA in fact knew that the money man for the 9/11 attacks was in the country prior to the attack but didn't share that info with anybody.)
• AND, the occupy Wall Street protestors have no cause. In fact, those of us on the left understand completely what Bill'O the Clown and Rush "Me More Drugs" Limbaugh and their ick don't: the difference between the haves and the have nots in the this country has never been broader. 1% of the population controls a disproportionate amount of wealth, are taxed at an inordinately low rate and, perhaps most importantly, Wall Street firms and banks received billions in bailouts to survive after a series of actions, unfettered by regulation, almost broke the world economy. And then, as soon as they got our money, it was back to obscene bonuses and sitting on the money instead of making legitimate loans. My favorite quote from the idiocracy on the right: The pizza dude, admitting he didn't "have facts" to back up his accusation, nonetheless expressed his belief that Occupation Wall Street was “planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama Administration."

Sometimes The Blogs Write You (With All Due Respect To Guy Clark)

In my Facebook posts, I like to occasionally point out the differences between us liberal Democrats and those guys. Last night, in Tampa, those guys flew off the rails, spewing some of the stupidest, most idiotic, wrong-headed comments that make this blog entry incredibly easy to write, that delineates the differences between us and them. THEY practically wrote it for me.
Exhibit A: Wackjob Congressman father of wackjob Senator Ron Paul showed us his true colors in an exchange with Wolf Blitzer addressing "socialized" medicine. When given the hypothetical case of a 30-year-old hard-working American who had chosen not to purchase health insurance who then becomes deathly ill, has his own self to blame and shouldn't expect the government to save him. The crowd yelled he should be allowed to die.
Exhibit B: Michele Bachmann, wife of a "therapist" who believes you can "pray away the gay," and accepts Medicaid while decrying the social safety net, told a lie about a fake conversation. She said a woman in Tampa told her that her daughter "developed mental retardation" after getting the HPV. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there has never been such a case.

What's the frequency, Sarah?

I don't know about you, but I've had it with Sarah Palin. As soon as she said "lipstick" at the Republican convention in 2008, that is. But, for some reason that I just cannot fathom, this idiot draws crowds. I know, so do house fires, car wrecks and HP stopping production of their tablet. But, the Palin "mystique" evades me.
But I think I may have figured it out. You know those Galton's whistles, the ones that only dogs can hear because they send out a signal at between 23-54 kHz? I just watched Shecky on the news. As her voice got higher and higher, her words got dumber and dumber and her Tea Party listeners got excited and more excited. Eureka! That has to be it. If you want to appeal to these rabid, antigovernment, antitaxes rich old white guys and their nontrophy wives, you have to aim high ... vocally.
Let's face it. Mitt Romney looks too much like he just walked off a 1960s rerun of "Bewitched." Rev. Gov. Rick "I do believe in gun control. Use both hands." Perry has a track record of questionable political acts dating back to the Reagan Administration. Newt Gingrich, the Godfather pizza guy, the other Mormon and the other crazy Republican from Texas are all men.
You see where I'm heading with this, right? Michele Bachmann, defender of the flag, hater of the unions, wife of the "pray away the gay guy," and Palin are the only ones capable of hitting the high notes. The half-term governor and the "I'm in charge of the Tea Party. Called it!" are just plain stupid. I mean, even a dog can see how stupid they are, right? Why do they have any traction? There must be something they're putting out that people are responding to, although practically everything they say is pointed out the next day by folks on the left and the right as pure drivel. Pheremones, maybe? Or is it the "Ann Coulter Affect," where men carry around the Crypt Keeper's book to make themselves look ... fill in the blank.
Or could it be something darker? Could there actually be enough voters in this country that believe men and women should be held to different standards? That doesn't appear to be the case. I mean, Rick Perry refused to stay the execution of a man who was quite possibly both innocent and mentally ill, brags about producing 40 percent of the jobs developed in the country over the past 2 years, despite them being mainly either government or minimum-wage jobs and today he said said he believes in gun control, "use both hands," and gets chuckles.

Mitt Romney is running from his government-mandated health care as Massachusetts governor by saying he's opposed now and is still being investigated for "saving" the Utah Olympics. The Tea Party wants nothing to do with either one.
Sarah Palin lied in her acceptance speech at the 2008 convention when she recalled saying "'thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere," but in actuality Alaska never returned the money received to build it. (For that matter, she lied to Katie Couric about having read all those magazines and newspapers). I'm still working on parsing her "corporate crony capitalism" phrase. It's much like most of her sentences, just throwing some words together. It's like Rudy Giuliani, in the immortal words of now-Vice President Joe Biden, using "a noun, a verb and 9/11" in every sentence. Despite his culpability for the horrible idea of locating the command center for such a disaster in the very building which posed the most likely target, and in fact had been bombed once before. Palin loves to drop "socialism" in there every chance she gets but no one ever is allowed to ask her a question about anything she says or ... well, anything at all. Gotta watch out for those gotcha questions don't you know. I would bet all my worldly possessions that she doesn't possess in that moronic little brain of hers a working definition of "socialism."
Congresswoman Bachmann's sins are wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too extensive to list here. But, the Tea Party loves her. In fact, the Tea Party loves them both. I don't know why. If the Tea Party actually cared as much about their country as they pretend to, they would run screaming from these dingbats, push for the end to both wars, more stimulus spending (to stimulate the economy) and the trying of Shrub and Dick "Dick" Cheney (two long "e's") as war criminals. But instead, it's "oh, look, listen to the pretty girl."

Shit My Senator Says

Here in Oklahoma, we have the dubious distinction of being represented by the absolute worst pair of U.
S. Senators, the dishonorable Dr. Tom Coburn and the clueless Jim Inhofe. On Tuesday, Sen. Inhofe attempted to rewrite recent American history before a no-doubt rapt Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce.
Here's the "highlights" as reported in the Tulsa World:

1. “We now have a president, and I don’t mean this disrespectfully, who is destroying these very institutions that made America great."
2. Obama engineered the House Republicans’ ban on earmarks in order to give himself more control of the budget.“When they came along with this moratorium, you have to let the president run everything. They conceded that authority to the president of the United States, so that’s why the president was behind the whole earmark thing."
3. Military spending, as a share of gross domestic product, has declined during the Obama administration. He also criticized critics of Gitmo: “You know the biggest problem for prisoners when they get to Gitmo? Obesity." The idea that prisoners have been tortured there was invented by Obama and others “to make you think something bad is happening in America — the same thing he does and others do when they go around talking about how bad America is."
4. The deficit is Obama’s fault because “it’s the president’s budget. Period. That’s the end of it." The debt-limit agreement does little or nothing to reduce overall spending. One solution: repeal the health-care reform law, which he said is an example of “social engineering” designed to make Americans more dependent on the federal government and end extended unemployment benefits, saying he saw no reason for them in Oklahoma because the state has “virtually full employment."
5. Inhofe thinks that we could be "total independent from the Middle East in a matter of weeks, not years,” if the administration allowed unfettered oil and gas development on public lands.

Where to begin. But, at least he said, “Don’t misunderstand, (nothing) I’m saying now is for political purposes." If it sounds like bullshit, smells like bullshit and comes out of Inhofe's mouth, it's bullshit.

1. President Obama has been blocked at every turn by a totally anti-Obama GOP Congress. "Not to be disrespectful" is code for "I mean to be disrespectful to this black usurper."
2. Funny. His colleague Dr. Tom is credited in some circles for leading the crusade against earmarks. If Inhofe and Coburn disagree about ANYTHING, it must be President Obama's fault.
3. The Bush military budget for 2005 was 4.06% of  GDP. In 2010's budget: 4.7%. The 2009 U.S. military budget accounted for nearly 40% of global arms spending and was six times larger than China's. The U.S. and her allies account for anywhere from 2/3-3/4 of the total world military budgets. And Gitmo: His comments were too fucking stupid to acknowledge. And, oh, yeah, the black man doesn't love America.
4. Once again, and I'll type this slowly for idiots like Inhofe: President Clinton ran budget surpluses, turned the keys over to Bush and the great budget director Mitch Daniels and watched the debt explode - even while using supplemental budget requests to fund a) a war that should have been a Seal Team Six op in 2001 and b) a war to avenge a hit put out on his father. Saddam Hussein was never a threat to America. And, social engineering? The American government is tasked with protecting the general welfare of the people. That morally should include accessible, affordable health care and assistance to people who for any of a million reasons can't find a job instantly.
5. The real reason we are in the mess we're in is because of horrible circumstances such as having Jim "I never melted no icebergs" Inhofe as the chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. Doing the work he's paid to do by the oil industry, Koch Brothers, et al, he's going to insist on drilling for oil anywhere and everywhere, onshore, offshore. "Polar bears and penguins be damned, I've got to drive!"

In Indiana, we have a name for people like Inhofe: Morons. Oh, it's the same in Oklahoma.

Holy Batshit, Bachmann

The latest from the right:

1. Michele Bachmann promises $2 a gallon gas under a Bachmann Administration. Well, if everybody lines up for tankfuls to drive out of the country if that should ever happen, that could lower the price, I think.
2. Gov. Paul Walker took bargaining rights away. Wisconsin lost 8,200 private sector jobs and 12,500 total. Last month.
3. Rev. Gov. Rick Perry is a nonbeliever. He doesn't believe in evolution, he doesn't believe humans are at all responsible for global warming, he doesn't believe that it makes any difference if the vast majority of the 38% of American jobs created since June 2009  that were created in Texas are either minimum-wage or state jobs and he doesn't believe that evolution is not taught in Texas.
4. Donald Trump and Shecky Palin are bitching about President Obama having spent 70 vacation days in his first 31 months in office. The previous occupant had rung up 223 by that time.
5. John Huntsman is having descension in his campaign. Wait, what? John Huntsman? Isn't that the guy from the "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" commercials?

Ron Paul is a big dumb idiot

I remember in 2008, hordes of young people (okay, maybe a dozen) were standing at the corner of 71st Street and Memorial in Tulsa waving Ron Paul signs and asking for people to honk if they were with them. Someone even stuck a Ron Paul 2008 sign on the South Denver overpass of the Broken Arrow Expressway. Ron Paul narrowly was outspent by Michele Bachmann in last weekend's Ames Straw Poll, losing by only 152 votes. Really. He did. I know no one said it, not wanting to appear to be sexist by pointing out that the stupid woman bought her victory. Well, of course, Paul spent $31,000 to get the prime location in the Straw Poll voting show.
Listening to Ron Paul assert his positions is kind of like picking up a woman (or man, all fairness) at closing time. You think you've struck it rich and then they keep talking and you very quickly realize you've made a horrible mistake. Here's a few:

1. Paul was the only 2008 presidential candidate to vote against invading Iraq. Big thumbs up! He also believes we need to bring our soldiers home from Japan, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and Europe. Okay!
2. Paul is a believer in non-interventionism, the belief that America should avoid entangling alliances  with other nations, but still retain diplomacy, and avoid all wars not related to direct territorial self-defense. Yes! Very good!
3. Paul wants the United States to withdraw from organizations he believes override American sovereignty, such as the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the Law of the Sea Treaty, the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America. Wait! What?
4. He supports abolishing Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, Welfare, public education, the post office, public parks, public streets, highways, the EPA, OSHA and the USDA, and believes the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional. From his own December 30, 2003, document: "The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers." What the what?
5. He's a global warming denier. He doubts that the gold in Fort Knox is ... gold. He supports legalizing heroin and Rand Paul is his son.

It's An Iowa Thing, Part 2

I found out last night, from Rachel Maddow, just how the Ames Straw Poll actually works. The short version: it's all about money. Here's a bit of knowledge:

1. You must be at least 16 1/2 years old and either a resident of Iowa or a student at an Iowa college to vote.
2. Democrats can vote.
3. There's a poll tax. It would make Strom Thurmond proud. In fact, the Straw Poll is part of a fundraising dinner for the Iowa Republican Party. If you qualify under #1, you can pay a $30 poll tax to vote for $30.
4. This poll tax can also be paid for by candidates. The candidates can and do literally buy votes. Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann bought 6,000 tickets last weekend and despite the fact that as many as 1,177 of those "voters" picked someone else, she used the occasion to show off her racism: "“You have just sent a message that Barack Obama will be a one-term president. This was a wonderful down-payment on taking the country back.” Bachmann backs buying ballots!
5. Candidates bid on the best placement within the display area. Bids last weekend started at $15,000.
   Ron Paul got his money's worth, too: He paid the most for the choicest booth space, $31,000.

And so it begins, again: Taking our country back

Either Michele Bachmann is incredibly stupid, has a short memory or is a racist. My guess is she's all three. In Iowa yesterday, one day after celebrating her stunning ... 154-point win over the equally hopeless Ron Paul, Bachmann used those 4 little code words: "Take our country back." Now, what do you suppose that means? Who took our country? Where did it go? Was there some great change that we weren't told about? Let's see, we got a new president a couple of years ago. He's bl ... Oh, I see.
Today, the Rev. Gov. Rick Perry told even more Iowans that the men and women in our armed forces "deserve to have a commander-in-chief that is in love with America." When have we ever had a president that wasn't? I mean, if we had a, oh, I don't know, president who "is so outside our comprehension, that only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior, can you begin to piece together [his actions]," said the Marrying Man, Sir I Do of Newt.
I've really had it with this disrespect being shown to the president. I mean, Bush was an idiot, but at least President Obama was smart enough to know that everybody knew that. That's why the 2008 campaign was about the future and not the past. But, there's just one little problem: Bush's past is inescapable. He increased national defense spending from $297 billion in FY2001 to $534 billion in FY2010. Even Bachmann has stated President Obama was responsible for $700 bailout of Wall Street. She's never been the kind of person that would let a little thing like the truth get in the way of a talking point.
Rev. Gov. Perry publicly proclaims himself to be a Christian, even to the extent of misusing the funds and the stationery of his office to put on a big ol' revival in Houston. Yet, he has no problem misleading the public. Perry states correctly that Texas has created "40 percent of all the jobs in America." What he doesn't say is that the vast majority of those jobs were minimum wage jobs (Bachmann of course wants to do away with minimum wage, calling it a job-killer). Texas and Mississippi, in fact, share the distinction of having the most minimum wage jobs in the country. There's even a joke going around Texas. A man asks another man, "Is it true that Texas has created more jobs than anybody in the last couple years?" The other man says, "Yes it is. I should know. I have three of them."
Maybe Bachmann means that batshit-crazy wants to take the country back from intelligent, measured, responsible people such as the president. I mean, she is color-blind, at least historically. Who can forget her great quote, saying that the Founding Fathers "worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States." It only took them 87 years.

The Rick Perry Secessionist View

When people say, "It's not about the money," it's about the money. When a coach quits to "spend more time with my family," he was given the choice to quit or be fired. When your spokesman has to say of you, as Rev. Gov. Rick Perry staffer Mark Miner told the Texas Tribune, "He has said many times that we have a great union, and he believes it should stay that way,” he's not sold on this whole "one nation" deal.
Now, do I think Perry genuinely supports the idea of Texas secession? Based on his own quotations, yeah, I kinda do.
History lesson: The Texas Annexation of 1845 transformed the Republic of Texas into the 28th state. The Mexican-American War ensued from 1846-1848. That ended with the Mexican Cession of 1848, which extended America's southern territorial acquisitions from Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. Texas, despite statehood, claimed the eastern portion of the new territories, which included parts of modern-day Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming. The Compromise of 1850 made the disputed lands parts of other U.S. territories in exchange for assuming the Texas Republic's $10 million in debt.
President John Tyler supported annexation in 1843, but the annexation treaty was defeated 35-16 in the Senate. Upon the election of James K. Polk, a supporter of annexation, Tyler consulted with Polk and the result was the successful passage of an annexation ordinance and the writing of a Texas state constitution.
Now, here's where Rev. Gov. Perry gets confused:

New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas and having sufficient population, may, hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution.

Texas can legally lift but not separate. Politico found this statement by Rev. Gov. Perry on a YouTube post “When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation. And one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.”

So, why would anyone want to become president of a country from which he's "kind of thinking about" seceding from? And, who would vote for someone with such treasonous views? Or for someone for whom the separation of church and state has zero importance?