Okay, lefties, secession was your fantasy all along, and requesting part of Texas allotment of vaccine units is sort of like asking the dry cleaners for your clothes back after a week. The clothes are yours. You've already paid. Now you're just picking them up. Texas is just picking up the dry cleaning in this case, not begging for the feds to save us. Excerpt from the SayAnything blog follows...
People who desire a return to this country’s federalist roots understand that there are some things the federal government is supposed to do and some things the federal government is not supposed to do. People such as Governor Perry (and myself, because I feel as he does on this issue) don’t want to abolish the federal government altogether. There are certain things the federal government is supposed to do. Our founding fathers recognized this too, which is why they created the federal government and tasked it with certain powers per the Constitution.
And one of the things the federal government is supposed to be involved in is responding to national emergencies. This includes international disease epidemics that cross not only state boarders but international boarders as well.
Believing that the federal government should allow states to decide issues such as gay marriage, abortion, gun control, commerce issues and the like for themselves does not necessarily mean believing that the federal government has a role in responding to an international health threat such as swine flu.
But, once again, obfuscating Perry’s position on these issues (and by extension the positions of the state’s rights movement in general) is much easier than having an honest, logical, straight-forward debate about the issue.
Rick's official state website has a good explanation of what's going on (link). Excerpt follows...
AUSTIN – As a precautionary measure, Gov. Rick Perry today increased his request of antiviral medication to 25 percent (850,000 courses) of the Texas allotment from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Strategic National Stockpile to be prepositioned in the state. This request will augment the more than 840,000 courses of antiviral medication on hand in Texas following a purchase authorized by the 80th Legislature and Gov. Perry in 2007.
In other words, Texas has an allotment reserved at the CDC. Rick is just asking for it.
The teeth grinding on the lefty blogs is telling though... it shows a worldview that believes the states are merely administrative districts within an all powerful national government. Most of us on the right believe the federal government should be an agent of the states. The CDC is Texas' agent. We give them resources. They give us back our antiviral medication when appropriate. An international outbreak is appropriate. I would assume the CDC is assisting in Mexico as well right now, just like it assisted in Canada when another type of flu was raging.
I also find it interesting and important that Texas took it upon itself 2 years ago to buy 840 thousand courses of antiviral medication that would stop a big outbreak in its tracks. In other words, the CDC is not really swooping in to save the day here like the lefties want you to believe. It is merely supplementing the efforts Texas has going on already.
Thanks to Rob at SayAnything blog for blogging all the way from North Dakota but making 100% more sense than all the lefty blogs combined. I guess this is all part of Rick's strategy, to make people like me rally around him when he and Texas are being attacked by liberals from outside of the state. If it is his strategy, it's definitely working on people like me with deep Texas roots and a lot of state pride. People who have just moved here maybe not quite as much.
Yea and refusing unemployment money is like the dry cleaners telling you to "come get your shit" and you saying "keep it, they will just get dirty again and you'll try and get me to have it cleaned again in a month or two...
ReplyDeleteSO stupid
Texas pays less in federal money than it receives in federal money, so your argument is without foundation.
ReplyDeleteNow, don't get me wrong. I lived in Texas for 7 years, graduated from UT Austin, and consider Austin to be one of the greatest cities in America, and have relatives that live there. Of course, they are all Democrats...
I'm a liberal who was born, and lived in, El Paso-the red headed stepchild part of Texas-the great majority of my life, and the reason Perry's getting blasted is because of his sheer hypocrisy in whining that he's oppressed by the same federal govt. he's now seeking help from.
ReplyDeleteFurther adding to Perry's hypocrisy is his complete silence on an overarching Executive branch when Bush Jr was President, yet now Perry screeches about power mad bureaucrats in DC hell-bent on destroying our Constitution.
Unfortunately for the fringe righties that Perry's sucking up to, the only thing most people remember about those mass teabaggings on April 15 was Perry's idiotic blather about secession.
I'm guessing now that Perry's had to go crawling back to the same feds he blasted recently, those same types who swooned with delight when hearing the secession BS are feeling let down & betrayed.
Of course, there will be no secession, but if it ever came to pass, then if it's good enough for Texas to split from the US, then it's also good enough for El Paso to split from Texas.
So the Texas GOP can continue to primary it's own people right out of the legislature, like it did with Pat Haggerty, and then lose contests in the general election, like Dee Margo, a Tom Craddick lackey. Margo beat Haggerty in the primary, then lost to Joe Moody in the general.
More minorities moving to the state, along with the Tx. GOP's insistence on appeasing the extremist elements in its base, don't suggest a permanent political majority, and last I checked, the Dems need only three more seats to take the House, so it's obvious this state isn't as red as Perry would like to believe.
I grew up in Texas, but I've lived all my adult life in the North. There are plenty of things I miss about Texas, but the conservative political lunacy isn't one of them. Do you know how stupid you look when Perry pulls this kind of crap, or when you holler about how loyal and patriotic you are as you threaten to secede?
ReplyDeleteTexas used to be great. Now, thanks to you all, it's a joke.