A VIEW from LICK SKILLET by Gerald Largen: Corporal Boehner enlists for ‘class warfare’

The other day, we were visiting with our neighbour, Don Matthews, when he told us of the new name going around for Texas Governor Rick Perry — Governor Scary! That seems an apt appellation if ever there was one.

However, as has been said. ‘There’s a little bit of bad in the best of us, and there’s a little bit of good in the worst of us.’ And in the case of Gov. Perry that was demonstrated in the recent Florida candidates debate.

We refer, of course, to the matter of resident tuition for young folks who were unlawfully brought into the state while they were still young enough not to have control over where they resided, and who have gone to Texas public schools for several years, and in effect know no other home but Texas.

As was to be expected the other candidates jumped all over Perry, and, despite his generally poor debating performance, to the point of being tongue-tied at times, he staunchly defended his position on this issue.

He in fact responded to Mitt Romney that if he did not see the rightness of his, Perry’s, position that he, Romney, had no heart.

To all of which we say, “Amen!”

Of course the crowd he has chosen to run with were completely turned off by both the original action and by Perry’s response, some we understand, even booing.

While we completely understand and sympathize with the opposition to adults coming into this country in violation of the immigration laws, we do not understand, nor do we sympathize with anyone claiming to be a righteous, God-fearing Christian who would hold responsible a child for the wrongs of that child’s parents.

We do not doubt that some of the loud-mouthed louts who would punish the children of immigrants, no matter how illegal the parents’ entry into the country might be, would squall like a stuck hog if it were suggested that their parents history and record be looked at and, if any irregularities be found, they would be punished for the same.

As we see if those who criticize Perry for this act of common decency and Christian piety (Remember, Jesus’s instruction concerning the little children) not only have no heart, as he said, but also have no compassion, no moral core, and no brain.

Rick Perry has a sorry record in many regards, and the thought of his becoming president of these United States goes beyond scary, but the compassionate consideration for the children of illegal immigrants is not one of them.

In fact, it shows that beneath all that veneer of swagger and right-wing radicalism, there is still a small core of decency left over from the days before he turned his coat, when he was first elected as a Democrat, and still cared more for people than for corporations and the rich and powerful people who control them.
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Speaker of the House, John Boehner, once again parroted the charge that President Obama and the Democrats are engaged in “Class Warfare” because they recognize that the tax burden has become askew and so many of our millionaires and billionaires are no longer paying their fair share, and shouldering their part of the burden of citizenship in this great and glorious republic.

The truth of the matter is that, as so many villains do, he is accusing the President and his party of doing just exactly what the Speaker and his party have been doing and hope to continue to do, i.e. waging economic war against the poor and the middle classes. It’s an old trick — accuse your adversary of doing just what you are doing or propose to do. And no dispassionate observer could fail to recognize that there has been a deliberate effort to undo each and every advance that has been achieved over the past century, beginning with the reforms of Theodore Roosevelt and extending to the recent health care reform of Barack Obama. This is war against the poor and middle class waged by the rich and powerful.

The Speaker and his cohorts have already voted to undo Medicare, when they unanimously voted for the Paul Ryan Budget, with its voucher conversion scheme for Medicare. And they clearly have their sights firmly fixed on getting rid of Social Security and Medicaid. So, when it comes to class warfare, Boehner holds at least the rank of Corporal in the anti-poor, anti-middle class army, and he might rise to Sergeant if he can hold his job.
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We don’t know whether you have been watching the ABC evening news broadcasts recently, but we have, and we have been inordinately pleased (as well as surprised) that the network has initiated a continuing series called, “Made in America,” which, as the title indicates, is focused on the fact that so few consumer goods are made in America, and that we are dependent upon China and other exporting states for so many of the things that we need and use virtually every day. It is to be hoped that others in the media will follow suit and force the powers that be to recognize that the out-sourcing of so many of our manufacturing and support jobs to foreign countries is not only dangerous to our economy, but also a threat to our national security.

Dependence upon foreign nations, especially ones that do not share our ideals and goals will in the long run prove disastrous. Recent events whereby our economy and our stock market have so violently reacted to events in Greece and the rest of the Euro zone should wake up our leaders.

Unfortunately, they show no sign of doing so. They are all too busy worshiping at the shrine of “The Global Economy.” Isn’t it time to quit being so concerned with the Global Economy and focus upon the American Economy?
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One note of follow-up to last week’s article: It seems that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu just cannot help himself in his attempts to embarrass President Obama and the United States. Just five days after the President’s speech opposing the Palestinians’ request for U.N. recognition, and Netanyahu’s fervent protestations of doing everything possible to reach agreement with the Palestinians, his government announces that they are going to build well over a thousand new Jewish housing units within that part of Jerusalem claimed by the Palestinians as the site of their capital when their state is formed. This Israeli action is not just a two-fer, it’s a three-fer.

At one move they manage to spit in the eye of the Palestinians, of the United Nations, and of their chief defender, the United States. Charming folks aren’t they? As the old query goes: With friends like these, do we need an enemy?
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Finally, as we pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the Kingston City Manager is the head honcho of the Kingston Police Department. We foolishly thought that pointing this out would induce this gentleman to take some steps to see to it that his department would act to apprehend the petty thief about which we have written several times recently. After all, isn’t his name Pinkerton, and wasn’t Pinkerton of the Pinkerton Agency one of the greatest forces for law and order earlier in our history? Well, apparently our hopes and expectations are doomed to disappointment and the name Pinkerton is now besmirched with the same mud as the other hapless incompetents of the K. P. D. How sad.

But hope springs eternal, and we will continue to report upon this sad parody of a crime-fighting police department.