Posted on 08/17/2011 4:41:52 PM PDT by Brices Crossroads
Texas, we have a problem. Your GOP governor is running for president against Barack Obama. Yet, one of his most infamous acts as executive of the nation's second-largest state smacks of every worst habit of the Obama administration. And his newly crafted rationalizations for the atrocious decision are positively Clintonesque.
In February 2007, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed a shocking executive order forcing every sixth-grade girl to submit to a three-jab regimen of the Gardasil vaccine. He also forced state health officials to make the vaccine available "free" to girls ages 9 to 18. The drug, promoted by manufacturer Merck as an effective shield against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) and genital warts, as well as cervical cancer, had only been approved by the Food and Drug Administration eight months prior to Perry's edict.
Gardasil's wear-off time and long-term side effects have yet to be determined. "Serious questions" remain about its "overall effectiveness," according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. Even the chair of the federal panel that recommended Gardasil for children opposes mandating it as a condition of school enrollment. Young girls and boys are simply not at an increased risk of contracting HPV in the classroom the way they are at risk of contracting measles or other school-age communicable diseases.
Perry defenders pointed to a bogus "opt-out" provision in his mandate "to protect the right of parents to be the final authority on their children's health care." But requiring parents to seek the government's permission to keep an untested drug out of their kids' veins is a plain usurpation of their authority. Translation: Ask your bureaucratic overlord to determine if a Gardasil waiver is right for you.
Libertarians and social conservatives alike slammed Perry's reckless disregard for parental rights and individual liberty. The Republican-dominated legislature also balked. In May 2007, both chambers passed bills overturning the governor's unilaterally imposed health order.
Fast-forward five years. After announcing his 2012 presidential bid this weekend, Perry now admits he "didn't do my research well enough" on the Gardasil vaccine before stuffing his bad medicine down Texans' throats. On Monday, he added: "That particular issue is one that I readily stand up and say I made a mistake on. I listened to the legislature ... and I agreed with their decision."
Perry downplayed his underhanded maneuver as an aberrational "error," and then gobsmackingly he spun the debacle as a display of his great character: "One of the things I do pride myself on, I listen. When the electorate says, 'Hey, that's not what we want to do,' we backed up, took a look at what we did."
Are these non-apology apologies enough to quell the concerns of voters looking for a presidential candidate who will provide a clear, unmistakable contrast to Barack Obama? Not by a long shot.
How Obama-like was this scandal? Let us count the ways:
TRAMPLING OF THE DELIBERATIVE PROCESS
Since Day One, President Obama has short-circuited transparency, public debate and congressional oversight. How can Perry effectively challenge the White House's czar fetish, stealth recess appointments, selective waiver-mania and backdoor legislating through administrative orders when Perry himself employed the very same process as governor? Not only did Perry defend going above the heads of elected state legislators, but his office also falsely claimed the legislature had no right to repeal the executive order. "The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it," Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody told The Washington Post in February 2007.
When both the House and Senate repealed the law six weeks later, Perry did not as he now claims listen humbly or "agree with their decision."
HUMAN SHIELD DEMAGOGUERY.
In response to the legislature's rebuke, the infuriated governor attacked those who supported repeal as "shameful" spreaders of "misinformation" who were putting "women's lives" at risk. Borrowing a tried-and-true Alinskyite page from the progressive left, Perry surrounded himself with female cervical cancer victims and deflected criticism of his imperial tactics with emotional anecdotes.
He then lionized himself and the minority of politicians who voted against repeal of his Gardasil order. "They will never have to think twice about whether they did the right thing. No lost lives will occupy the confines of their conscience, sacrificed on the altar of political expediency." Perry, of course, has now put his own ghastly Gardasil order on that same altar but with no apology to all those he demonized and exploited along the way.
CRONYISM.
Most noxious of all, Perry wraps his big government health mandate in the "pro-life" mantle. But the do-gooder theater is a distraction from the business-as-usual back-scratching and astro-turfing that are Obama hallmarks. Perry's former chief of staff Mike Toomey is a top Merck lobbyist. Toomey's mother-in-law headed a Merck-funded front group pushing vaccination mandates. And Merck's political action committee pitched in $6,000 to Perry's re-election campaign in 2007.
The PerryCare executive fiat was not simply a one-off mistake explained away by lack of "research." It exposed a fundamental lapse in both political and policy judgments, an appalling lack of ethics and a disturbing willingness to smear principled defenders of limited government who object to the Nanny State using their children as guinea pigs.
Trusting Rick Perry's tea party credentials is a perilous shot in the dark.
The Governors Executive Order (RP 65) that caused all the controversy also ordered the director of DSHS to make it easier for parents to opt out of vaccines. The Legislature had changed the law from opt in to a requirement to opt out once for all the school years. Next, they changed to a two year limit on the opt out, and then in 2005, the Legislature restricted the period to one year and required a new State form bearing a seal. Parents had to go to Austin or start early in the summer. There were bureaucrats who maintained that the only way to get the form with the seal was to go to Austin, find the right office and make the request in person.
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(you left something out).............
Perry used his EO to tell the Director of DSHS to make the request (and the seal) available on-line, making it easier to opt out.
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The parents could fill out the form online and submit it.
It was as simple as that.
But the EO was overturned before it went into effect anyway.
This Dr. Nuckols who posted on Malkin’s site also repudiated one of obammy’s Doctors for America who claimed Beck’s 9/12 project was a bust. See her comments on the blog below.
http://www.drsforamerica.org/blog/much-work-to-do-by-dr-alice-chen-384
btw Perry is not a conservative and he is a RINO. And making a fool of yourself on these pages cannot change that. Bye.
and that the Perry would not announce “yes” until he was sure Palin was a “no.”
///
1) WHY did Palin specifically remind the press, a few days ago, that Perry had said he wouldn’t run?
2) Palin knows, a LOT of people support her, and are spending a LOT of time organizing in every state for her.
do you really BELIEVE, that if she had already decided “NO”,
that she would let them keep wasting their time ?!?
3) we shouldn’t criticise Perry, because it will hurt him?
...we shouldn’t breathe a word of any legitimate concerns about Perry, because if we are VERY quiet, the MSM will ignore it also ?!?
we SHOULD vett our candidates!
if they can’t take it here, they certainly can’t take it in the general campaign.
and the MSM will exaggerate and outright LIE about Gardasil, etc.
...again, if Perry can’t take it here, then he won’t beat BHO at all, let alone by “15 points”.
Are you saying that this guy Perry, who is so timid on illegal immigration that he even rejected the half-hearted AZ law is in the middle? The “middle” has drifted far left, apparently. Bob
He was also against E-Verify, for TARP and for Algore in 1988.
I was using hyperbole to make a point...and if you can’t understand that...then you aren’t very bright.
I remember Dan Patrick when he regularly painted his face blue on his TV sportscast after Houston Oiler victories back in the day. Same guy who had a vasectomy on the radio. Now he's in the TX senate and has the inside scoop on Sarah Palin's 'real' plans.
So we can rest easy now, onyx. Sarah Palin, who won't even tell her parents her plans because she's afraid they'll spill the beans has told Gov. Perry and a guy who had a vasectomy while doing his radio show.
I'm glad I finally know now, onyx. Aren't you? LMAO.
Just so you know, Gardasil Researcher Admits Vaccine May Be More Dangerous than the Disease
That means it is unproven.
Moreover, "poor promise of efficacy as a vaccine married to a high risk of life-threatening side effects."
That also means it is unproven.
Moreover, unlike other vaccinations which have proven to be effective in preventing known viruses in school children for decades, unproven Gardasil isn't even necessary unless the female is sexually active which many if not most are not. So that comparison on your part was 'pretty silly'.
ROTFLOLOLOLOL.
Thank you as always, dearest Al B. Goes to prove, I ping you for good reason!
I need to *sing-out* (sign out) but I'm doing it LOL!
GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN on with Greta tomorrow night!
Not really saying that...and didn't say that. I am saying stick to Reagan's rule. There is a reason he said it. He KNEW the enemy would use it against us. There is a way of vetting...campaigning...and debating without (and this is what I said) "beating up the candidates... to the point that they come out of the primary SO DAMAGED they can't beat the incumbant."
This is what is happening and this is what I was trying to convey to the poster...but he doesn't understand the use of hyperbole so I should not be surprised it was lost on him.
So...let me clarify. I believe the difference in honest debate and what I see going on here is this: In honest debate, I can have my beliefs...and when the candidate i DID NOT chose wins...I can support them with my fullest measure of enthusiasm. I can get those yard signs...bumper stickers...I can "pimp" them out to my moderate relatives and neighbors after 6 months of telling them why I want them to vote for candidate z in the pramary "instead of THAT guy."
BUT...what I see going on here...like on this thread is the stuff that FOOLS are made of. HYPERBOLE ALERT (for the dense ones in the audience)! When you denegrate, call names, call them RINO, say they are this or that, "THEY'RE NO BETTER THAN OBAMA (and that's been said). When you destroy them for 6 months...and they get the nomination...it is aweful difficult to turn that ship around. It's hard to get up the motivation to campaign to defeat this individual we have in the White House now.
It's REAL HARD to go to that moderate relative or neighbor and say "VOTE FOR THAT GUY" when you've done nothing but run them in the ground for 6 months. You look like a fool.
See the difference between "vetting" and detroying? One helps the enemy...one doesn't.
I didn't vote for Romney in the Primaries last go round, and neither did most Republicans, so I don't see how he's considered "most electable" four years later.
Ron Pual is not electable, period. He's too old, too libertarian, and except for Paulbots, nobody would vote for him.
"He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular.
He walks the walk of a true conservative"
No, from what I see, he has been pretty lax in wanting to curtail the problem. He has been outspoken on border security.
From what I see he wants better border control, but also does not have a big problem with the cheap labor. He’s better than Democrats and some Republicans..and better than Bush...but not nearly good enough.
From my perspective, there is a reasonable middle solution to this problem that tightens up the border, gives existing illegals a short opportunity to register as a legal worker, and try to get the chaos under control...without any form of amnesty or fast path to citizenship. If he developed some sort of solution like that, I would be comfortable.
He's Texan.
So is Perry.
So Perry must, Must, MUST be the only choice! Don't you see?
Cheers!
What makes you think Perry knows Palins mind? Didn't I just read on FR that he tweeted "I hope Palin makes the right decision"? Doesn't sound to me as if he has a clue.
Probably 50 % are Axelrod or DU trolls and who knows about the other half.
This is a screaming astroturf post and few are here to be reasonable.
Jim, do you think that most of the anti-Perry posters (or Michele Malkin) are DU trolls or screaming astroturf?
Cheers!
I agree. I register a “don’t care” on the vaccine and highways issues. The first issue I find with Perry is illegal immigration. He says he is against amnesty which ‘sounds’ good but we need to find out if that’s just a smokescreen. Not favoring the fence really ticks me off. So he sounds like another mushy politician on immigration like Bush.
So that’s -1. On many other issues - spending, taxes, foreign policy, GW - Perry has somewhat of record of actions and statements over the years. He shoots off his mouth a lot. I loved his comments on GW. He is not cautious like GW Bush which can be great but only if he backs it up and follows through and doesn’t allow the media to succeed in portraying him as a secessionist wacko.
After the hell we raised in 2007, no sane candidate is going to support "amnesty." They'll pull some euphemism out of their butt, like "Pathway to Citizenship" or "Migrant Worker Program."
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