Author: Randy Slovacek

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Ron Paul: Newt Gingrich no friend of the Tea Party

One of Ron Paul’s chief supporters – his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul – said Friday that Newt Gingrich stood opposed to tea party values.

“I got elected with a lot of the tea party support and the tea party movement,” Sen. Paul said on CNN “Newsroom.”

“The tea party was a lot about people unhappy with Republicans voting for bank bailouts. We thought they sold out our limited government views when they voted to send taxpayer money to big banks. Unfortunately, Newt Gingrich was right there with them being paid by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It goes against everything that the tea party stands for.”

The assault on Gingrich comes as Ron Paul, a three-time presidential candidate and Texas congressman, aired a blistering television ad in Iowa and New Hampshire that slams Gingrich for “serial hypocrisy,” saying the former House speaker had cashed in after leaving Congress by becoming a lobbyist.

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Tangerine Tango – Pantone color of 2012

Pantone has announced that “Tangerine Tango” (a slightly reddish orange color) is THE color for 2012.

Each year the Pantone Color Institute forecasts the color for the year ahead and the due diligence is intense. Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Institute who spearheads the project, notes Pantone experts scour the world and consider what’s percolating in every possible industry.

So, what’s the verdict? Like? Dislike? Can you see yourself in “Tangerine Tango?”

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Obama: “Ask Osama bin Laden if I engage in appeasement”

At the Republican Jewish Coalition GOP presidential candidates forum this week, Mitt Romney claimed President Obama is ‘appeasing’ America’s enemies.

“Internationally, President Obama has adopted an appeasement strategy,” Mitt Romney said.

Newt Gingrich accused the Obama State Department of “appeasing our opponents.”

A reporter asked the President about the GOP attack line today during a White House press conference.

President Obama’s answer: “Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22 other out of 30 top al Qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement, or, whoever is left out there.”

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Rick Perry defends his anti-gay campaign ad – poorly

Rick Perry says DADT “was working fine.” Easy to say when he’s living a heterosexual life.

His answers to Wolf Blitzer’s questions circle the questions over and over.

This man is low in the polls for a reason.

Someone should educate Rick Perry: you don’t need to go to music history class every day to know that the music you’re playing during your anti-gay ad is by Aaron Copland, a gay Jew.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a parody of Rick Perry’s anti-gay ad.

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An apology to President Obama

This ‘apology’ to President Obama appeared in the LA Times.

Apparently this woman was very critical of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare as it’s now commonly referred to). She didn’t like the law and clearly had an opinion about people who didn’t have health insurance.

Hit by the economy, this woman now faces the terrible diagnosis of cancer with no health insurance.

With the recession, both of our businesses took a huge hit — my husband’s income was cut in half, and the foundations that had supported my small nonprofit were going through their own tough times. We had to start using a home equity line of credit to pay for our health insurance premiums (which by that point cost as much as our monthly mortgage).

When the bank capped our home equity line, we were forced to cash in my husband’s IRA. The time finally came when we had to make a choice between paying our mortgage or paying for health insurance. We chose to keep our house. We made a nerve-racking gamble, and we lost.

Not having insurance amplifies cancer stress. After the diagnosis, instead of focusing all of my energy on getting well, I was panicked about how we were going to pay for everything. I felt guilty and embarrassed about not being insured.

“I’m not a deadbeat,” I blurted out. “I’m a good person. I have two kids and a house!” The clerk was sympathetic, telling me how even though she worked in the healthcare field, she could barely afford insurance herself.

This hits me on a many levels.

During the health care debates I was facing my own cancer journey. I watched multitudes of TV reports (during rounds of chemo) where people all over the nation who didn’t understand the law screamed and spit at law makers.

At the time, I became aware that most people get their health insurance through their employers, so they had no idea of what it actually costs. Being self-employed, I pay for my own every month – on my own.

I also had the feeling most people who hated the law probably had never experienced a serious disease. Do it once and you really value your coverage.

I’m very sorry this woman faces cancer and I wish her the very best. And I appreciate that she has had this epiphany about the protections for “pre-existing conditions” and how important this is.

One more thing: notice one of the issues the woman brings up is that she wanted people to know she wasn’t a “dead beat.” Probably because that’s what she thought people who didn’t have health insurance were.

I hope a lot of people read this letter and find a bit of the reality check here.

Yes, it can happen to you.

No, it doesn’t mean you’re a “dead beat.”

However, don’t judge those without health insurance as looking for a handout. It happens.

She closes with this:

“So this is my public apology. I’m sorry I didn’t do enough of my own research to find out what promises the president has made good on. I’m sorry I didn’t realize that he really has stood up for me and my family, and for so many others like us. I’m getting a new bumper sticker to cover the one that says “Got nope.” It will say “ObamaCares.”