Yesterday, The Huffington Post reported that Lauro Garza, head of Somos Republicans, quit the Republican Party and left his position with the largest Latino Republican organization in Texas, due to the escalating anti-Latino rhetoric of the Republican Party.
Now, for any sane, rational person who watched the GOP debate last week and heard the Republican candidates tripping over each other to see who could use the word "illegals" more, or to anyone who watched the other GOP contenders attack Rick Perry's policies that help undocumented immigrants gain an education in Texas, this comes as no surprise. In fact, most of us probably wonder what took the dude so long.
But apparently it was a surprise to the Republicans.
From HuffPo:
"There is no place for Latinos in the Republican Party", Garza, who had identified as a Republican for 30 years, said in Spanish.
During his statement, Republican State Rep. Leo Berman stuck his hands over his ears and said, "I can't hear you, you're not speaking what I think should be the only legal language in Texas."
More from HuffPo:
Garza said he made his decision after Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain proposed building an electrified fence across the U.S.-Mexico border that could kill those crossing illegally. Cain also called for an armed military presence on the border and the use of real ammunition against immigrants.
"What Cain said contradicts the Constitution and shows how we were infiltrated by nativist ideas highly hostile towards Hispanics and immigrants," said Garza, who made his decision and spoke to The Huffington Post on Friday. "I am not going back to that dump until the party goes back to the principles held under Ronald Reagan."
Good luck with that, Lauro! Ronald Reagan was a known socialist -- he raised taxes eleven times during his administration. He also gave amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants. If someone with Ronald Reagan's record were on the ballot today, he'd be polling lower than Rick Santorum.
More from HuffPo:
Chris Elam, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas, told the Austin American-Statesman on Friday that state GOP leaders never discussed the idea of an electrified a border fence.
"Most Republicans I know are a little more thick-skinned" than to take offense and leave the party because of Cain's controversial remarks, Elam said.
Ok, so apparently Latino Republicans should just be so thick-skinned they could survive a run-in with Herman Cain's electric fence. Now that would take some thick skin.
Last HuffPo set-up:
Garza said it is not okay to discriminate based on race or ethnicity. "I was born here; I live here; and I speak perfect English. I look Latino because I am of Mexican origin, but I will not be discriminated against because of that."
When asked for comment, Republican State Rep. Debbie Riddle demanded to see Garza's papers, and began drawing up a bill to appropriate funds to hire a car to drive Garza back to Mexico, where Riddle thinks he belongs.
[Ed. Note: No, Berman and Riddle didn't say those things, or at least not to the press, or to us, on this instance. But they both do have a pretty extreme history of trying to pass legislation that does make Texas English-only, and demand immigration papers. It's sarcasm, but it's believable, which is sadder than it is funny.]
Oh snap. So now our Washington D.C. hating Governor wants to move tout de suite to the place that he loves to loathe?
Apparently Rick Perry hates Washington so much that he cannot wait to get there.
But wait.
Apparently Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera believes Rick Perry's comments about secession are so unbelievably treasonous that the Governor of the once great state of Texas should be impeached.
Of course Rick Perry has not been impeached. This is Texas, after all. The esteemed Governor won yet another term in office.
Texas Republicans obviously have a very high threshold for third world statehood in which low taxes, small government and a budget based on smoke and mirrors prevails. The Texas GOP also demonstrates a high tolerance for narcissistic and integrity-free lawmakers who bring more than a tad of hurt and suffering to them, their families and their pocket books. But to be fair Texas has more than its fair share of right wing extremists and crackpots that include white supremacists, secessionists, xenophobes and racists, most of whom voted for Rick Perry. The Governor relied heavily on this base in order to get re-elected.
There is a reason why Rick the Rooster and his Texas GOP want to keep Texas schools at the bottom of the national pile. And there is a rationale for why the Governor supports the anti-intellectual and anti-science Christian Taliban zealots that run the State Board of Education.
Is Rick Perry pandering? Pandering is precisely what crowing roosters like slick Rick do. As Texas progressive writer and friend of the revered late Molly Ivins Harold Cook duly noted, voters outside of the state may recoil from a sinking sense of deja vu when they see the swaggering rooster Rick on the campaign trail.
The problem for Perry, in the blinding light of the national stage, is that he may ultimately be seen as the swaggering rooster who believes the sun came up because of all that crowing.
I have asked this question before and I will ask it again. Why do Republican voters, whose financial net worth is far less than one million dollars, continue to routinely vote for politicians that have nothing but unbridled contempt for those who fall far short of millionaire incomes?
Since January, 2011 the Republican Party has embarked on a radical mission to dismantle the social programs that were passed into law in the 20th Century. The GOP extremists want to return to the heyday of the reckless and irresponsible economic policies of the 1920s that led to the worst depression in U.S. history.
The social programs that were implemented in the 20th Century passed during a time in which there was a Democratic ethos of caring capitalism. By making investments in programs and initiatives for working Americans, tens of thousands of boats were lifted. Hard working folks had the opportunity to move up the ladders of education and attendant higher incomes. These investments ensured a secure future for a solid and thriving middle class America.
But today's radicals on the right want nothing to do with the caring part of capitalism or with floating any boat, for that matter. In fact, the extremists have no clue what the definition of care is.
On Friday the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to gut Medicare. It did so while giving yet more tax cuts to millionaires and by making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Just one day after Congress concluded its fight over this year's spending, the House voted 235 to 193 to approve the fiscal blueprint for 2012 drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee. Besides reconfiguring the Medicare program that now serves those 65 and older, the proposal would cut the top corporate and personal income tax rates while also overhauling the Medicaid health program for the poor.
On Friday evening just minutes before midnight the Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress managed to cobble together a desperate last minute effort to agree on spending cuts in the budget in order to avoid a government shut down. The Tea Party wing of the GOP is apparently not very happy about the compromise at all, mostly because Tea Party Republicans seem to be incapable of understanding the basic tenets implicit in the responsibility ones assumes when one is elected into office. In other words the Tea Publicans did not get the message that Washington no longer does it is my way or the highway politics anymore. That went out with the W. Bush era after its Administration drove our nation into a financial hell hole.
Somehow Tea Publican members of Congress seem to think their legislative ideological and intrinsically reckless decisions have absolutely no impact on the American people at all.
Of course the GOP and its Tea Party people really don't care much about governing responsibly on behalf of the the people. Over the past few months we have learned that most are self serving cowards who serve an ideology that is both ludicrous and cruel.
It's unclear where the adults are, but they don't seem to be in Washington. Beyond the malice of the threat to shut down the federal government, averted only at the last minute on Friday night, it's painful how vapid the discourse is and how incompetent and cowardly our leaders have proved to be.
The Texas Republican Party is on a mean-spirited, heartless and cruel mission of SLASHeconomics that is unnecessary and uncalled for. It is blindly cutting the budgets for schools and social services with absolutely no regard for the devastating long term consequences of such cuts.
Rick Perry and his far right Republicans refuse to touch the Rainy Day money for next year's budget though this is precisely the time in which we should tap into such funds. Instead the Republicans have chosen to stockpile the money and rob children of their futures.
Outside of the box thinking, complex problem solving, the ability to explore creative and unique alternatives and a modicum of compassion are called for during dire and desperate economic times like these.
Are Texas Republican lawmakers made of the right stuff to lead? Is it capable of throwing away its memorized talking point campaign rhetoric, forget about its Obamacare and federal government bashing monologues, dismiss its highly paid message masters, unglue its lips from its sugar daddy donor's backsides and engage its collective brain to do what is right and work on behalf of all Texans?
Let's take a peek at the legislation proposed in Austin so far by the super majority Party.
Readers can decide whether or not Republican lawmakers are made of the right stuff.
The Texas Republican Party loves to hate any form of government to the point it would love to wash it out of our lives altogether. Except, of course, when it comes to peeking inside of our bedrooms and when imposing expensive medical procedures on women who have to make very difficult personal decisions.
Since it is incapable and unwilling to honestly address its decision to impose devastating budget cuts to schools and social programs, the Republican Texas Taliban Party has decided to hide behind the veil of emotional hot buttons known as social and cultural issues. That and divide and conquer politics. What else is a Party that has sold its soul to corporate power brokers and one that is morally bankrupted to the point it shows nothing but contempt for ordinary people to do? And this is precisely why the deficit denying cowards and ethically challenged Republicans in the state Senate passed an abortion sonogram bill.
AUSTIN - Doctors would have to perform a sonogram at least two hours before an abortion and describe the fetus for the woman - including cardiac activity, internal organs and limbs - under a bill that sailed through the Texas Senate on Thursday.
The debate - marked by references to God and the right of "hairy-legged" men to drive changes in the procedure - culminated in a mostly party-line 21-10 vote that sends the measure to the House for consideration.
Is Sharia law coming to Texas? Or do Texas Republican men suffer from an acute and chronic case of misogyny disorder? Or are the Republican Taliban inspired men simply hiding behind women's skirts in order to avoid manning up and admitting the obvious? Let's face it. Rick Perry and the Texas GOP fiscal policies of the past 10 years are one whopping and mind blowing disaster.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte said that if a woman chooses to give birth, and the motivation of the bill is to protect children, then "it's our responsibility to protect that child once the child is born, too," and not drastically cut the budgets from areas like vaccines and pre-kindergarten education.
"We seem to worship what we cannot see, but as soon as that baby is born, oh no, government doesn't want to be intrusive," said Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat. In a reference to conservative Grover Norquist's comment that he wanted to cut government to the size where he could "drown it in the bathtub," Van de Putte said, "Texas is going to shrink government until it fits into a woman's uterus."
Meanwhile in Washington D.C. a female US House Representative from California has something to say about the appalling and insensitive talibanesque statements made by a male colleague from New Jersey.
(A nice bit of snark & satire for your Friday... - promoted by Phillip Martin)
Rick Perry prevailed upon Republicans to withdraw their children from the state's elementary and secondary public schools while giving a keynote address to a group of Texas conservative business leaders at a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce luncheon in Houston.
While reluctantly admitting that Texas faces fiscal challenges the Governor refused to acknowledge a $30 billion deficit. It seems that Texas does not do shortfalls much less deficits. But Mr. Perry did concede that the budget was such that school funding would be deeply cut. The Governor assured those present that the solution to the school budget crunch is the creation of more affordable private Christian elementary and secondary schools.
Now I know most of you present here have already enrolled your children in some of our state's finest private schools. But I want to make private schools more accessible to Republican Christian families that cannot afford to pay high tuition and for those who cannot home school their children. In a city like Houston private school tuition can cost between $10,000 to $25,000 per year per child.
In a Q&A following the Governor's talk a member of the press corps asked how much funding would be cut from school budgets. Mr. Perry's response:
Perry says he's an expert on the budget and yet he has no clue that the deficit could be double the current estimate. Nor does Dictator Rick want taxpayers to waste our comptroller's time by asking her questions about the budget hole. Excuse me Governor but didn't you and Ms. Combs take an oath to serve the people of Texas and its constitution? Where exactly does it read that taxpayers are not allowed to ask questions of our elected and appointed officials?
Naturally only as a coward would, Rick Perry tried to pin his self-made Texas budget hole on Washington.
a very long time ago. He and his revolving door of donors and cronies have entrenched themselves comfortably in a tightly controlled gated compound that is filed with lavish opulence fit for kings and queens. There is a swimming pool, cabana, servants, a collection of fine wines and exquisite cuisine. The gates into and out of Perry's community are impenetrable. Not just anyone can live or go near Perry and his cronies. One must first apply for residency. A board comprised of the Governor's appointed community officials decide who deserves to live among their ranks. Usually one is deemed deserving if one donates generously to Perry's political campaign coffers and those who give the Governor advice on potentially profitable real estate.
Those living outside of the compound must support it by providing the Governor with a salary that includes benefits. Outsiders are also expected to cover the costs of the Governor's housing expenses and security detail. In exchange for all of these benefits, the Governor agrees to serve the people as their public servant. A Governor's mission is to serve all of the people in his or her state, not just those that voted for them.
Unfortunately for most Texans Perry may have taken an oath to serve but he has largely ignored his job description. The only ones served in Texas so far are Rick Perry and his cronies.
In the ten years that he has performed as Governor, Rick Perry has made himself a very wealthy man. Meanwhile our K-12 schools rank second to last nationwide and we have the highest number of uninsured residents. In 2002, Rick Perry promised that he would start cracking down on insurance companies but in 8 years, he's done little more than accept $1 million in campaign contributions from the insurance industry. Ten of his staff members have made out grandly too as all have earned millions serving as lobbyists for insurance companies.
This past Saturday's edition of the Houston Chronicle discloses the financial histories of both of the gubernatorial candidates, Rick Perry and his Democratic opponent Bill White.
I betcha Louie Gohmert and Sarah Palin did not realize that their hysterical invocations of Hitler when bellyaching about President Obama's demands to BP have brought the Evil One back from the grave.
Hitler is back and he is foaming at the mouth with rage. It looks like Hitler's ghost is going to haunt Smokey Joe and his GOP for a very long time.
