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Perry Points to ‘Idiotic’ U.S. Rule That Doesn’t Exist
Wall St. Journal ^ | Jonathan Weisman

Posted on 08/29/2011 10:08:06 PM PDT by Tempest

For a small-government conservative on the presidential campaign stump like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a new federal regulation forcing farmers to get commercial drivers licenses would make a perfect example of Barack Obama’s Washington run amok.

But there is no such regulation.

During his debut in Iowa Sunday night in Waterloo, then again at on Monday at the Iowa State Fair Monday, Gov. Perry brought up the phantom “obscene, crazy” regulation in Texan terms.

“If you’re a tractor driver, if you drive your tractor across a public road, you’re gonna have to have a commercial driver’s license. Now how idiotic is that?” he thundered to the fair crowd in Des Moines, with the rejoinder, “What were they thinkin’?”

Here’s what they were thinking. Earlier this year, the State of Illinois began regulating certain kinds of farmers as commercial motor vehicle drivers, a move that caused a lot of consternation in the Illinois farming community, seeing as it would require stiff new driving tests, periodic drug testing and other hurdles. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration stepped in to clarify whether the states had the right to do what Illinois had done, and on May 31, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued a public notice asking for comment on the commercial licensing of farm equipment.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: farmersdrivingtests; idiot; perry; ricardo
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To: Squantos

The Wall Street Journal is the left?! Do you Perry supporter smoke crack?


41 posted on 08/30/2011 5:37:34 AM PDT by Tempest (Google: Rick perry bi-national healthcare)
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To: Tempest

Tempest, thy reign is tea pot.


42 posted on 08/30/2011 5:43:52 AM PDT by infool7 (Let us water the tree...)
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To: Tempest

The reporter is a rat leftist. If ya don’t know who is writing the crap don’t post it..

Btw....Palin or Bachman are my first choices....not Perry.

Smoke that zippy.


43 posted on 08/30/2011 5:51:18 AM PDT by Squantos (Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet)
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To: Tempest

OH well, since you insist on posting anti-Perry articles constantly — I might as well chum the water and get the Birthers stirred up too!!!!

PERRY/RUBIO 2012!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


44 posted on 08/30/2011 5:52:17 AM PDT by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: BykrBayb
I'm sure that the Democrats will be pleased that the national party decided to put up yet another tough taking governor from Texas...

It's a brilliant strategy really. I'm sure the independent voters are going to be excited....

45 posted on 08/30/2011 5:58:55 AM PDT by Tempest (Google: Rick perry bi-national healthcare)
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To: Tempest
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration - a federal agency - was apparently seriously considering this until it got so much blow-back it dropped the idea.

In fact, the FMCSA did not publish the notice withdrawing the request for comments on the idea until August 10, 2011, and Perry made his comments on a Sunday - August 14, 2011 - only 4 days after the publication of that withdrawal. Keeping in mind that these sorts of agency publications are routine and are generally made with little or no fanfare, it's not unreasonable that Perry would not have known about the withdrawal.

More to the point, however, is that Perry is not completely wrong - as the FMCSA notice itself states, farmers are generally subject to the federal commercial drivers license rules unless the state they're in decides to exempt them from those rules. Therefore, unless a particular state decides to exempt its farmers from the scope of the CDL rules, farmers in that state will be subject to a federal requirement that they obtain a CDL.

That's going to have really silly results for farmers who live at the border between two states if one has exempted them and the other has not.

That's a stupid idea all around, whether or not the states can exempt farmers.
46 posted on 08/30/2011 6:06:12 AM PDT by Oceander (The phrase "good enough for government work" is not meant as a compliment)
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To: commish

You obviously posses a rebellious nature. It’s not meant for you, I always thought you to be more perceptive though.


47 posted on 08/30/2011 6:13:53 AM PDT by Tempest (Google: Rick perry bi-national healthcare)
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To: Tempest

Do you really think so? What do the democrats have to say about Perry? Are they promoting him?


48 posted on 08/30/2011 6:28:39 AM PDT by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: BykrBayb

I’m not sure which of the Republicans candidates the Democrats are backing...


49 posted on 08/30/2011 6:53:26 AM PDT by Tempest (Google: Rick perry bi-national healthcare)
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To: Tempest

No, I didn’t, genius, I voted for McCain.

Now get back to your OCD before Perry becomes your president.


50 posted on 08/30/2011 6:59:41 AM PDT by chris37 (representative)
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To: Tempest

Only about an hour earlier you said you were sure the democrats would be pleased with Perry as the GOP’s candidate. Now you don’t know who they’d prefer?

It looks to me like they’d prefer to knock Perry out of the running now, but all they can come up with is yellow journalism and misleading innuendoes.

If you can come up with any substantial reasons we should steer clear of Perry, I’d like to read about it. So far, you’ve run a good campaign in his favor.


51 posted on 08/30/2011 7:24:31 AM PDT by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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To: BykrBayb

Actually you missed the point of my retort.
Which was you asked me which candidate were the Democrats promoting.

My response was meant to show the absurdity of that question. Which is do you think the Democrats are promoting somebody?

The notion that the media is more focused on showing Perry in a bad light more than the other candidates is paranoid at best. A quick google news search using just the names of each candidate would quickly reveal which candidate currently gets the most negatively slanted headlines.

It’s not Perry. So if your motivation in selecting a candidate is to be anti-media establishment. You’re supporting the wrong candidate.

Out of curiosity which policy issues do you think are important in a Republican. Which ones are least important.


52 posted on 08/30/2011 7:55:28 AM PDT by Tempest (Google: Rick perry bi-national healthcare)
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To: Tempest
No, I did not ask which candidate the democrats were promoting.

You said " I'm sure that the Democrats will be pleased that the national party decided to put up yet another tough taking governor from Texas... It's a brilliant strategy really. I'm sure the independent voters are going to be excited...."

I asked you " Do you really think so? What do the democrats have to say about Perry? Are they promoting him?"

You missed the point of my retort, which was that contrary to your claim, the democrats (and you) are apparently not pleased with Perry. My question "Are they promoting him?" was a rhetorical question. The clear answer is that no, they (and you) are not promoting him. They (and you) don't seem to be at all pleased with him.

53 posted on 08/30/2011 8:16:11 AM PDT by BykrBayb (Somewhere, my flower is there. ~ Þ)
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