She’s in love with Dan Futrell.

Dan Futrell has bodacious in his blood and has Rick Perry tap dancing in a mind field.  You really need to read the whole thing, but Dan Futrell, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who served 27 months in Baghdad and is a two-time recipient of the Bronze Star Medal, holds a Come To Jesus meeting on Rick Perry’s doorstep.

When Rick Perry implies that the military does not respect Barack Obama, Dan Futrell tells Rick he’s wrong.  That the military is not the only form of service to country.

Our country now has roughly 12 million teachers and education administrators; 17 million health care and social workers, and another 18 million federal, state and local government employees, according to 2010 Census data,. That’s 37 million Americans – more than 10 percent of our population — who went to work this morning in service to America.

Though they may not necessarily risk physical harm, their service is essential to a prosperous and healthy America. I would hope that a man seeking the presidency understood that our military does its job so that U.S. educators, nurses, social workers and other public servants can do theirs.

Most of what we’ve now heard from the Perry campaign has to do with American values. I would like to ask Perry how strength, character and altruism are missing in the day-to-day work of a community organizer in Chicago.

Please explain to me how a fourth-grade science teacher is less patriotic than a drill sergeant in Killeen, Texas. Or how a social worker who helps single mothers in East Los Angeles is less patriotic than a convoy driver in Baghdad. Please explain how a fire fighter in Boston is less qualified for political office only because she has not volunteered for military duty.

Thank you, Dan.  Rick Perry needs a guidebook for good sense.

Thanks to David for the heads up.

I am so sorry, y’all, but when I saw this, I completely cracked up.

He shot a guy in the damn face.

An old, helpless guy.

Do you really think he needs to be chatting about making people’s heads explode?

Cheney really misses enhanced interrogation, doesn’t he?

He’s probably at home right now, torturing kittens.

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I had to make a tough decision today, but it got easier real quick.  There are two Democratic events this upcoming weekend that I wanted to attend – one in Austin and one in Galveston.

It’s going to be 110 actual degrees in Austin this weekend.  That’s actual degrees.  Calculators don’t go high enough to figure the heat index.

It’s going to be 95 degrees in Galveston.

Yep.  Waxing up my surfboard and joining Chairman Lloyd Criss in Galveston.

Yep, that’s even 10 degrees cooler than home.  They say we’ll get some rain long about February.  It’s hot as high school love around here, Honey.

(Y’all do not tell State Rep Ron Reynolds that I made the decision by the numbers, okay?  He thinks I’m coming to Galveston because he’s being honored there at one of the evening events.)

I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but when the southern religious right is talking about gay people, homosexual suddenly has about ten syllables.

ho-mo-sex-you-aaaahl-ssss.  Or sod-dum-might-ssss.  There’s a very distinct hissing sound involved.

It’s like they love to linger on the word.

Which brings us to Rick Perry.

Rick Perry is not gay, of course.  Not gay.  And we now know that because he’s also not a drunk.  Which is kinda like being gay.  No, wait.  It’s exactly like being gay, at least according to Rick Perry.

From his book about the Boy Scouts, On My Honor.

Time magazine has discovered that in his first book, Perry compared being gay to being an alcoholic:

in a little-noticed passage in his first book, “On My Honor,” a encomium on the Boy Scouts published in 2008, Perry also drew a parallel between homosexuality and alcoholism. “Even if an alcoholic is powerless over alcohol once it enters his body, he still makes a choice to drink,” he wrote. “And, even if someone is attracted to a person of the same sex, he or she still makes a choice to engage in sexual activity with someone of the same gender.”In “On My Honor,” Perry also punted on the exact origins of homosexuality. He wrote that he is “no expert on the ‘nature versus nurture’ debate,” but that gays should simply choose abstinence. Perry’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on whether he maintains this view.

I’ve said it once and now I’ll say it again, there should be a law that if you write a book you ought to have to read it.

Juanita is reacting to the allegation that the Republican Governors Association offered the New Hampshire state Republican party money in exchange for their party chair to step down.  It seems he’s a Tea Party member and real fond of the Looneytarian Party.

“In legal parlance, this is commonly referred to as a bribe,” she grins.  “But, don’t look so shocked.  Money is the only thing that Republicans understand.  Hell, they’d bribe their mother if they thought she’d pay up.”

“Now all this stuff is making the Republicans look like their clutch is slippin’ over the fight between the Tea Party and the Greed Party.  Already it appears that they’ve been chewed up, spit out, and stepped on.”

“It doesn’t matter diddle squat anyway because they already understand that they are going down, down, down, doobie do, down in 2012.  The only deciding left to do is this –  are they going down with a Texas or a Massachusetts accent.”

Juanita is enjoying this way too much.

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

Awwww, shucks.  Even rich Republican congressvarmints are suffering.

Yachting Vern

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan’s 110-foot luxury yacht is up for sale.

Earlier this month, a yacht sales company listed the Entrepreneur for sale at $4.49 million.

But, here’s the real troublesome thought.  The Florida congressman says the yacht is a “must sell.”  Last year he sold his remaining car dealerships and earlier this year his sold his $2.5 million Sarasota penthouse.

Now if one of the richest members of congress, and a member of the Ways and Means Committee,  is liquidating his assets, does he know something we don’t know?

On the upside, maybe  Yachting Randy Nuegebauer, of landlocked West Texas desert fame, can upgrade.

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads-up.

UPDATE:  Alfredo knows all the good stuff before everybody else does. That’s why I always have lunch over at the Dairy Queen.  Just an hour ago, this went online.

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the FBI to investigate Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) for witness tampering, obstruction of justice, and bribery.  CREW’s complaint is based largely on the deposition testimony of Rep. Buchanan’s former car dealership business partner Sam Kazran.  CREW also asked the House Office of Congressional Ethics to conduct an inquiry.

It looks like Ole Vern’s got bigger problems than a yacht for sale.

REUPDATED:  Somebody’s got a sense of humor about this.   Click the little one to see the big one.