Governor Rick Perry vetoed the important texting while driving bill yesterday, Friday, June 17, 2011, much to the dismay of the bill’s supporters. The cities of San Antonio and El Paso already have enacted laws prohibiting cell phone use while driving, as do 30 other US states. But Perry seems to feel he shouldn’t stick his normally intrusive nose in to the issue.
Perry says texting bill is government micromanaging
Saying the bill is a “government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults” and “an overreach” Perry went on to veto 23 other bills in true Perry form. Interestingly one of those being a bill that would have allowed transit buses in certain urban counties to drive on highway shoulders during peak traffic hours. Perry said this bill would have endangered motorists by not leaving an emergency lane open. Texting while driving is obviously not a danger to motorists in Perry’s mind. Obviously Perry hasn’t read the CDC’s statistics on young people and texting while driving.
Perry’s long record of vetoing bills
Vetoing bills is nothing new to Perry. In fact shortly after becoming Governor of Texas, on June 17th, 2001, he infuriated the legislature by vetoing a staggering 83 bills causing some politicians to nickname the date “The Father’s Day Massacre”.
Perry’s executive order requiring little girls receive a controversial vaccine.
In 2007, Perry outraged Texans after he enacted an executive order requiring all school girls be vaccinated with the drug Gardasil as prevention for the HPV virus. Fortunately, The House of Representatives quickly rescinded the order. At the time Attorney General Greg Abbott concluded Gov. Perry “exceeded his authority with the executive order” and the CDC stated “the vaccine is valuable, but making it mandatory is beyond reasonable”.
Perry’s ulterior motive for mandatory HPV vaccine revealed
Perry came under righteous scrutiny when it came to public light that his chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Rep. Dianne White Delisi, was the state director of an advocacy group bankrolled by Merck to push legislatures across the country to put forward bills mandating the Gardasil vaccine for preteen girls. Two years later the National Vaccine Information Center issued a report raising serious questions over the drug’s harmful side effects. And just months after that Journal of the American Medical Association declared that “serious questions regarding the overall effectiveness of the vaccine needed to be answered and that more long-term studies were called for .”
Rick Perry’s controversial abortion sonogram bill
Rick Perry is the same governor who recently enacted the controversial sonogram abortion bill, which takes effect September 1st of this year. The bill states doctors must perform sonograms before abortions, must describe the presence of internal organs or limbs and must make the fetal heartbeat audible. The bill also requires performance of a sonogram 24 hours before abortion except in medical emergencies. Apparently Perry doesn’t view forcing women to undergo sonograms in order to have abortions as a blatant form of government micro management. Whether pro choice or pro life, all women should be outraged by this bill. Several plans and lawsuits are in the works to have this unconstitutional bill thrown out on its religiously and conservatively-based ear.
Perry for President? With his political track record? Hopefully NOT
So why should anyone outside of Texas care about what Rick Perry does in his own state? Most importantly because Perry is seriously considering running for the presidency in 2012. Fortunately, voters will be able to reference Perry’s 10 year track record as Texas Governor when considering him as a presidential candidate. In a state where low-paying jobs are the norm and unemployment rates are at an all time high, services for families practically non-existent ( 43rd in the nation in high school graduation rates, 1st in the nation for families without health insurance and 4th in the nation on the percentage of residents living below the poverty level). In addition, Texas is first in the nation in cancer-causing carcinogens released into the air, first in toxic chemicals released into the water and first in the amount of hazardous waste generated. Governor Perry’s well-known tax breaks to big businesses is a huge contributing factor to the environmental issues the state of Texas currently faces. All of these issues show a great deal about how well the Governor is running his state and his likely performance of running a nation. Local politics will become national politics if Perry does indeed decide to throw his cowboy hat in the ring.
Get the facts on Governor Rick Perry
Fortunately we have Perry’s long-standing political record to give us hope that he never sees the inside of the Oval Office. Anyone who wishes to go with the “Not Obama” vote would be remiss if they ignored Perry’s dismal 10 year record as Texas Governor. And fortunately there are many groups and online sites ready and willing to share the facts regarding Rick Perry.
Like this:
Like Loading...
