Just chillin' with Governor Rick Perry

I was at the RedState Gathering last September, having a grand ol’ time with online activist friends. It was a last-minute decision to even attend, but it was one that I was glad I’d made. I had an awesome story about hotel room confusion, I got to hang out with Ashley Sewell, and I was drinking free margaritas at an event sponsored by Governor Rick Perry.

It was a good time.

So, I was at this cocktail party being thrown by the governor of Texas, and he was definitely the man of the hour. There was a photographer taking pictures, and a long line waiting to shake his hand and smile for the camera. I figured I’d have time to meet him later, so I didn’t crowd in.

Sure enough, about an hour later, I noticed the photographer flipping through her digital images, and Governor Perry standing behind her by his lonesome.  I sidled up to the photographer and asked, “Is it ok to say hi to the governor?”

“Sure!” she cheerfully responded.

So I walked right up to him and said, “Hi, I’m Jenny Erikson, and my husband said I could go on this trip on one condition – that I got to meet the governor of Texas. And that is you, Sir, so … hi!”

There was a moment where he just looked at me, and then he broke into an easy grin and said, “Well let’s give the man what he wants. Come ‘mere Sweetheart!” Then he wrapped his arm around me and asked his photographer to take a picture as photographic evidence for my hubby.

It was very cool.

Some time and a few rounds of margaritas later, Red State Head Honcho Erick Erickson took the stage to address the crowd. Now, sometimes (especially after a few drinks) people get a leetle bit handsy friendly at these events. I always deflect any untoward gestures politely but firmly, because … well because I really like Leif and polygamy’s not our style.

Anyway. Erick was addressing the crowd, and from behind, some dude just came up and casually put his arm around me. Feeling a little uncomfortable, I was about to shrug him off when I heard a familiar drawl, “That’s yer husband up there.”

Rick. Freaking. Perry. No wonder he’d been so nice to me earlier. He thought I was married to Erick. Not wanting him to continue in his disillusion, I giggled and turned to him, “Actually, he’s not my husband, but I do have a really funny story about a hotel room…”

“I’ve already heard it. And it is a great story,” he said with a wink before moving on.

So that totally happened.

Yesterday I was at the USS Midway for the Roger Hedgecock Show, where Rick Perry was to make an appearance. He didn’t have time to meet many people in the crowd, but he did walk right by me. And he stopped and saluted me. For reals. I totally think he remembered me.

At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I wrote some schtuff recently. You should read it. Because I like you. And yer purdy. And my self-worth is tied to the number of clicks I get. Or something.

Anyway.

I wrote about the zombie protestors at the Special Olympics event that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was speaking at. No wonder public support for unions is plummeting. Imbeciles.

Did you hear about Sarah Palin’s emails being released?? OMG, they were going to be so deliciously scandalous! Except the weren’t. They were pretty ordinary, actually. What is the media’s obsession with taking down Palin? It’s annoying.

ATMs killed the radio star economy. So says Barack Obama. In other news, indoor plumbing killed the chamber pot industry.

I wrote this article on middle school kids and sextionnaires on a plane. Air travel has nothing to do with the article. It just makes me sound fancy, so I thought I’d point it out.

And I was on a podcast talking about internet privacy.

Happy reading!

I’m in dire need of brain bleach after reading the Facebook chat transcript between Rep. Anthony Weiner and one of his online flings. I cringed. I cringed much.

There was one exchange that made my jaw drop. The two were talking about doing it doggie-style so that they could both watch The Daily Show (I’ll pass you the brain bleach when I’m done with it), and Weiner makes this comment:

i hear liberal girls are very, uh, accommodating of others

And the girl, haven just been effectively called a slut, floozy, harlot, hussy, tramp, strumpet, insert-derogatory-term-of-choice-for-woman-of-loose-morals-here, responds with:

of course!

The girl is obviously not the sharpest tack on the bulletin board. No wonder she votes Democrat.

P.S. Anthony Weiner, you’re a pig.

In the same week that ultra-liberal personality Ed Shultz has been suspended from MSNBC for calling conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham a slut, Democratic Congresswoman and DNC chairwomanDebbie Wasserman Schultz is claiming that theGOP agenda is essentially a war on women.

Ms. Wasserman Schultz arrived at her illogical conclusion by citing the predominantly Republican call to defund Planned Parenthood of federal funds:

It’s just so hard for me to grasp how they could be so anti-women as they are. If you look on balance at the entire record, their record is anti-women, their record is a war on women and it’s a priority for them.

Apparently, wanting to defund a corrupt organization of our limited taxpayer dollars equals an intense hating of the female sex. Just in case anyone was wondering, Planned Parenthood is very profitable, which raises the question of whether or not it should be taxpayer funded.

Read the rest at The Stir

In which I rant about the need to discuss Wiener’s wiener and about why and what we’re sacrificing to afford high gas prices.

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California is releasing tens of thousands of inmates after a ruling by theSupreme Court on Monday. No, they haven’t been wrongfully imprisoned and suddenly found innocent due to some new DNA technology.

It’s just that the prisons are overcrowded.

A sane solution would be to build more prisons. Unfortunately, there’s apparently not enough money to build more steel bars. So, we should totally tax the rich, because even though they pay the vast, vast majority of our taxes, they still aren’t paying enough, because new prisons aren’t getting built!

Another logical option would be to spend less money per prisoner, so that the savings could go toward building new facilities. The average prisoner in the State of California costs over $48,000 annually, with about $16,000 of that going to health care, mental health, and dental costs.

Prisoners, convicted felons, probably have better health care than you do.

Seriously, does your health insurance cover free hormone replacement therapy for you if you happen to be transgendered? California prisons do. And soon, they may even provide gender reassignment surgery as well.

Read the rest at The Stir

Another week, another round of Obamacare waivers. One has to wonder at this point if the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act applies to anyone anymore. It certainly doesn’t seem to apply to friends of President Obama.

They’re all getting waivers.

The Obama administration granted 204 new waivers nationwide in April, and almost 20 percent of them went to fancy restaurants and hotels in San Francisco. It’s probably a coincidence that San Francisco is former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s district. Ms. Pelosi, along with her Senatorial counterpart Harry Reid, was one of the biggest pushers of Obamacare when the president was trying to get it passed.

The other 80 percent of the waivers went to the usual recipients:labor unions, large corporations, financial firms, and local governments. How nice it must be to be in bed with big government. Sarah Palin had a succinct response to the Pelosi waiver revelation:

“Unflippingbelievable! No, wait, it is believable,” Palin said in an email to TheDC (The Daily Caller). “Seriously, this is corrupt. And anyone who still supports the Pelosi-Reid-Obama agenda of centralized government takeovers of the free market and the corresponding crony capitalism is, in my book, complicit.”

Read the rest at The Stir

The United States hit the debt ceiling on Monday, surpassing $14.3 trillion in debt owed to pay for super important things like the stimulus that was going to keep unemployment from going over 8 percent. It’s totally cool though, because Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner suspended investments in federal retirement funds to buy us a few months to figure out what the heck to do.

Congress has until August 2 to raise the debt ceiling (think of this as a credit card limit — there’s only so much you’re allowed to borrow) or balance the budget.

This has happened numerous times since 1917, when the first limit was set. The idea was a good one: Congress could only borrow so much money before it had to figure out a way to balance the budget and pay back the debt. In theory, it works as a permission slip to borrow and spend, because Congress gets to decide whether or not to increase the limit.

Read the rest at The Stir

Florida is the latest in a line of states (including South Dakota) that has recently passed bills that would allow pregnant women considering anabortion to make an informed decision. The Florida bills, passed last week by a large majority in the State House of Representatives, include measures that would require mothers to undergo an ultrasound before an abortion, and also outlaw the termination of viable babies in the third trimester.

One freshman representative, Daphne Campbell, was chewed out as a traitor and had her job threatened by follow house member Scott Randolph over her support of the bill. Both politicians are Democrats.

“I was the victim of an altercation by my fellow state representative, Scott Randolph,” said Campbell on Monday. “Several items were thrown in my face, foul language was used against me, and I was insulted and ridiculed in front of all my colleagues. I was called a ‘traitor’ and was told that I was going to be kicked out of office next year.”

Read the rest at The Stir

Washington State has spent a lot of effort over the past few years enticing people to buy electric cars over old school gas-guzzlers. In addition to a tax incentive from the federal government, the state has exempted sales tax on the purchase of electric vehicles. In other words, it’s a great deal to buy a car that uses less gas.

People buy hybrid or electric cars for one of two reasons: To save money or to appear cool. People that actually want to save the planet ride bikes, not drive coal-powered cars.

To the hipsters, a tax on electric vehicles might not be a huge issue. These people might even feel that paying higher taxes for the privilege of driving a Prius makes them even cooler.

Read the rest at The Stir