Chad’s Morning Brief: Muppets Split From Chick-Fil-A, Cruz/Dewhurst Go After Each Other, & More
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of July 24, 2012. Give us your feedback below and tune in to Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty for these and many more topics from 6-9 am.
1. Muppets vs. Chick-fil-a (link)
Why are people still upset over Chick-fil-a and the President of the company's belief in traditional marriage? Now the Muppets have dumped Chick-fil-a. According to ABC News:
Customers going to Chick-fil-A in search of a Muppets-inspired toy along with their Chick-n-Strips will be greatly disappointed. The toys are no more. The Jim Henson Company, founded by the creator of The Muppets, has severed all ties with Chick-fil-A and announced on its Facebook page that “we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.”
The Jim Henson Company had formed a partnership with Chick-fil-A at the beginning of summer in order to feature Jim Henson’s Creature Shop toys in kids’ meals from July until Aug. 18.
On its Facebook page, The Jim Henson Company mentions its CEO, Lisa Henson, as a “strong supporter of gay marriage.”
The Jim Henson Company says it will be donating its final residual check from Chick-fil-A to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
The President of Chick-fil-a expressed an opinion. An opinion that most states and Americans have agreed with by the way according to elections when gay marriage is on the ballot. Now Chick-fil-a is being treated as if they said they hated gay people and wouldn't allow them to eat there. The President of the company simply said that he and the company's values believe in traditional marriage. How does that make him a hateful person? Seems to me that the Muppets, and those who are targeting the company are the one's who are intolerant.
I still don't understand how people are shocked by this. Everyone knows that Chick-fil-a is a Christian company. They are closed every Sunday and have never hid their beliefs. In my opinion, get over it.
2. A Heated Debate (link)
Early Voting continues today in the runoff elections and the most watched race had a debate last night. A heated debated. Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst are trying to capture the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and last night they debated in Houston. The debate was heated with both candidate accusing each other of things. According to the Houston Chronicle:
Cruz hit Dewhurst on his first answer, seizing on the lieutenant governor's past suggestion that some aspects of the American health care system are inferior to those in Europe. He recycled a second past attack moments later, when he said Dewhurst supported a broad guest worker program for illegal immigrants in a 2007 speech — but has since reversed himself and instructed state employees to remove the speech from his official website. That charge prompted someone in the audience to proclaim "liar!"
Dewhurst made a point of trumpeting his conservative credentials, saying at one point that he was a great supporter of capitalism and that he was "capitalistic."
Things got more tense, however, when Cruz said his father, a pastor who lives outside Dallas, received a Dewhurst flier with his likeness pasted in front of a Chinese flag — a reference to Dewhurst's past criticisms of Cruz's Houston-based law firm for representing a Chinese company in an intellectual property dispute with an American manufacturer.
"I have to say Mr. Lieutenant Governor, you're better than this. This is not what politics is supposed to be about," Cruz said of the flier. "This is why people are sick of the fighting."
Dewhurst responded: "I have total respect for you, your patriotism. There's no question you are a strong patriot."
"Then why does your mailer say different?" Cruz shot back.
When a question from an everyday voter during the debate asked why both candidates are indeed fighting so much, Dewhurst said his opponent is the one responsible for so much mudslinging. That prompted another outburst, from a woman seated near the stage who shrieked, "That's not true!" but she was quickly shushed.
Cruz again interrupted Dewhurst when he mistakenly suggested he'd been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
"The NRA did not endorse you in this race," Cruz cut in. Dewhurst responded: "You're absolutely right. It's the local, the local people."
This is going to be a close election. Who do you think will pull out the win?
3. GOP Isn't Happy (link)
Republicans aren't too happy that the Obama Administration plans on waiving mandatory work requirements for welfare.
“We are disappointed to see that the administration through this action and others seems intent not on helping to get Americans back to work,” said the letter signed by 76 House Republicans.
The one-page letter to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also states the administration is instead intent upon increasing Americans’ reliance on welfare and other government programs.
The work requirements in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families legislation were signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
The letter points out the addition of the work requirement had bipartisan support in Congress and that President Clinton upon signing them said the act “honors my basic principles or real welfare reform.”
The changes were detailed in a July 12 “information memorandum” from HHS telling states they could seek a waiver from the TANF program's strict work requirements.
Among the legal questions raised in the lawmakers’ letter Monday to Sebelius were whether waivers are applicable to the Social Security Act and what legal authority allows for such “underlying flexibility in federal law.”
Thoughts?
4. Romney Winning the Economic Debate (link)
When it comes to the economy, Romney crushes President Obama. That according to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll. The Democratic attacks on Romney's time at Bain Capital haven't worked and by more than a 2-1 margin, Americans think Romney would make good economic decisions. According to the USA Today:
By more than 2-1, 63%-29%, those surveyed say Romney's background in business, including his tenure at the private equity firm Bain Capital, would cause him to make good decisions, not bad ones, in dealing with the nation's economic problems over the next four years.
The findings raise questions about Obama's strategy of targeting Bain's record in outsourcing jobs and hammering Romney for refusing to commit to releasing more than two years of his tax returns. Instead, Americans seem focused on the economy, where disappointment with the fragile recovery and the 8.2% unemployment rate are costing the president.
Check out more of the poll's findings above.
KFYO LIVE Events:
Thursday July 26, 11 am to 1 pm: Come by and say hello at Chaparral Ridge Golf Course. I'll be giving away gift certificates. Details.
Saturday July 28, 2 pm to 4 pm: The Chad Hasty Show LIVE at Heroes and Legacies. Details.
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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