TX Gov. Rick Perry: Social Security And Medicare Are Totally Unconstitutional

"I don’t think our founding fathers when they were putting the term 'general welfare' in there were thinking about a federally operated program of pensions nor a federally operated program of health care. What they clearly said was that those were issues that the states need to address. Not the federal government. I stand very clear on that. From my perspective, the states could substantially better operate those programs if that’s what those states decided to do." - Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaking to Newsweek.

CNN Poll: Rick Perry Zooms To Second

CNN reports:

As Rick Perry moves closer and closer to a run for the White House, a new national survey indicates that the longtime Texas governor is close to the top of the pack in the hunt for the Republican presidential nomination. According to a CNN/ORC International poll, 15 percent of Republicans and independents who lean towards the GOP pick Perry as their first choice for their party's nomination, just two points behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who's making his second bid for the White House. Romney's two point margin over Perry is within the survey's sampling error.

We should see a least a couple of the above names disappear from the race after this weekend's Iowa straw poll. And it's very interesting to see Crazy Eyes tumble to sixth place.

Pat Robertson: Rick Perry Governs Texas According To The Bible

And, presumably, we can expect even more Christian sharia if he gets elected president.



(Via - Right Wing Watch)

Perry To Make It Official On Saturday

Even though this weekend's prayer rally was TOTALLY unpolitical (snork!), Texas Gov. Rick Perry is wasting no time in following it up with his official entry into the presidential race. According to Politico, by timing his announcement for this Saturday, Perry-related chatter in the media will "upend" whatever the result may be from the Iowa straw poll.

HomoQuotable - Frank Bruni

"With the stock market floundering and our credit rating downgraded and millions of Americans stranded in unemployment and Washington frozen in confusion, the temptation to look for one summary prescriptive — for certainty, even miracles — is strong. We’d be wise to resist it. To get us out of this mess, we need a full range of extant remedies, a tireless search for new ones and the nimbleness and open-mindedness to evaluate progress dispassionately and adapt our strategy accordingly. Faith and prayer just won’t cut it. In fact, they’ll get in the way." - New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, on Rick Perry's prayer rally.

Local News Covers Perry's Rally

A Cavalcade Of Hate Group Leaders

About half of the 18 SPLC-certified anti-gay hate groups had representation on the stage of Rick Perry's prayer rally. Clip description from Right Wing Watch: "Rick Perry, David Barton, Tony Perkins, Penny Nance, Gov. Rick Scott, Gov. Sam Brownback, Jim Garlow, and John Hagee speak and pray at The Response."

Israel's Jews Need To Stop Being Jewish And Recognize Jesus As Their Messiah

From the stage at Rick Perry's prayer rally. This is a very short excerpt of a rather prolonged call for Jews to stop being Jewish.

Photo Of The Day

Tony Perkins On Rick Perry's Prayer Rally

Barry Lynn of the Americans for Separation of Church & State takes on FRC's Tony Perkins. The rally takes place today in Houston. Halfway through the clip, Matthews runs a montage of the outrageous comments made by the event's sponsors.

Freep This AFA Poll

You know what to do.

TX Gov. Rick Perry Wants Constitutional Bans On Abortion & Gay Marriage

Rick Perry is a die-hard Tenther who totally supports states' rights. EXCEPT in those cases where the Christianist agenda is better served by overriding states' rights with federal constitutional amendments. Got that?

TEXAS: Perry Prayer Event May Flop

It looks like Texas Gov. Rick Perry's controversial Christians-only prayer rally may have dreadful attendance.

Openly and deeply religious, Texas Gov. Rick Perry organized what seemed like a slam-dunk event for a politician in a state where religion and politics walk hand in hand: He would fill Houston's Reliant Stadium with fellow believers in a seven-hour session of Christian atonement by some of the nation's most conservative preachers, exhorting believers to pray about the nation's moral decline. Since he set up the event scheduled for Saturday, however, Perry has become the most talked-about almost-candidate in the 2012 Republican presidential field. But with only 8,000 RSVPs for a stadium that seats 71,500 people, virtually no politicians planning to attend, and a slate of organizers who hold out-of-mainstream views on religious freedom, gay rights and even Adolf Hitler, the event has become a potentially risky gamble if Perry is serious about running for the White House.

This could be quite delish.

New From TX Gov. Rick Perry

New Poll By Zogby

Neither Perry nor Christie have declared their candidacies, yet they lead this Zogby list of GOP hopefuls who have been flogging the campaign trail for months.

TEXAS: Prayer Rally Suit Dismissed

The atheist group suing to stop Texas Gov. Rick Perry's prayer rally have lost their case.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit that sought to stop Gov. Rick Perry from sponsoring a national day of Christian prayer and fasting, ruling Thursday that the group of atheists and agnostics did not have legal standing to sue. U.S. District Judge Gray Miller said the Freedom From Religion Foundation argued against Perry's involvement based merely on feelings of exclusion but did not show sufficient harm to merit the injunction it sought. The governor has done nothing more than invite others who are willing to do so to pray," Miller said. Rich Bolton, who argued for the group, said he is considering an appeal. "I wonder if we had a Muslim governor what would happen if the whole state was called to a Muslim prayer," said Kay Staley, one of five Texas residents named as plaintiffs in the suit. "I think the governor needs to keep his religion out of his official duties."

Perry says that the event's hate group sponsor, the American Family Association, have not yet given him his "marching orders" as to his role during the rally.

Perkins Forces Perry To Take It Back

Hate group leader Tony Perkins has forced Texas Gov. Rick Perry to walk back his previous statement that he was "fine" with same-sex marriage if that's what a state were to decide for itself.

Here's the new quote by Perry which was just posted to the blog of the Family Research Council: "I probably needed to add a few words after that ‘it’s fine with me,’ and that it’s fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue. Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn’t changed."

RELATED: Perkins adds that Perry also supports a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. This is just more evidence of how the dominionists are forcing the GOP presidential field to conform to their vision of a Christian theocracy.

Christianists Turn On Rick Perry

Ever since Texas Gov. Rick Perry declared that gay marriage was a matter of states' rights, Christianists from Tony Perkins to Porno Pete have issued condemnations of the likely GOP presidential candidate's position. Today the strongest words yet come from World Net Daily founder Joseph Farah.

I admit it. I've been intrigued with Texas Gov. Rick Perry as a potential GOP presidential candidate. I attended his most recent inauguration in Austin. I've been impressed with what those who know him well say about his character. I liked that he called for a prayer rally in his state with co-sponsorships from the American Family Association, Jim Dobson and Family Research Council's Tony Perkins. I knew he had made mistakes as governor, but the state is prospering while the rest of the nation sinks into an economic morass. I believed he would pose more than a formidable challenge to Barack Obama in 2012. But you can forget all that – and all the nice things I said and wrote about Rick Perry. I'm afraid I've wasted my time and your time. In fact, I was just dead wrong in all of my conclusions about the governor of Texas. I no longer want him to run and no longer believe he is a viable candidate. In fact, I will do all I can to warn the American people away from him. [snip] Evidently I was fooled by Rick Perry. I freely admit it. I feel unclean for the nice things I have said about him to date. Forgive me.

NOTE: While Perkins says Perry is wrong about states' rights, he will still appear at Perry's all-Christian prayer rally.

TEXAS: Another Anti-Gay Hate Group Joins Gov. Rick Perry's Prayer Event

"I am honored to be a national co-chair of The Response. [Our members] are invited to take part in whatever way possible, whether it's coming to actually be a part of the event, or just praying at home. We believe that it's just important that women of faith come together and pray for our country. How far have we come as a nation from the early days of George Washington calling people to prayer, to today, where a governor calls on people within his state and people around the nation to come together in prayer and lawsuits get filed?" - Penny Nance, head of Concernstipated Women for America.

NOTE: While Perry may say he has no issue with same-sex marriage (in the name of states' rights), through his prayer rally he has aligned himself with virtually all off the most virulently anti-gay groups in the nation. These are hate groups that have publicly advocated to have you imprisoned and deported. Remember that the next time somebody mentions Rick Perry's position on marriage.

Perry: Marriage Is A States Rights Issue

Yesterday Texas Gov. Rick Perry said that he considered same-sex marriage to be a states' right issue and that he has no problem with New York's move to legalize it.

Perry, who has been weighing a presidential run, said he opposes gay marriage — but that he's also a firm believer of the 10th Amendment. "Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me," he said to applause from several hundred GOP donors in Aspen, Colo. "That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business."

Perry is expected to formally announce his presidential run by summer's end.