Right-Wing Closet Case Rick Perry Says He's Being "Called" To Run For President-- But Not All Republicans Are Singing Hosannas

And speaking of callings, Perry went on the record to say, perhaps a tad condescendingly, that "our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said marriage can be between two people of the same sex. And you know what? That's New York, and that's their business, and that's fine with me. That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business." Staying out of other people's business is so old fashioned and passé for today's Republican Party. They don't roll that way no more-- especially not when it comes to bedrooms and the Bronze Age morals they learn from their millionaire shamen.

I'm not ruling out he could be the Fred Thompson of the 2012 cycle, but there's a lot of right-wing money ready to deploy-- we're told-- for someone as malleable and shallow as George W. Bush. Even if few normal Americans do, that big right-wing money remembers the good old days fondly. While some Republicans suspect that he doesn't stand for anything, the money men urging him to run, don't care see that as a definite positive, the cherry on the cake. Now they just have to sell it to the morons Murdoch's media empire has molded. Right-wing talk show host David Zublick poked around a little for Digital Journal and he's nervous that so "many conservatives and Tea Party activists see [Perry] as a very attractive and viable candidate, one who would liven up a field that seems devoid of exciting prospects."

But before Republicans start salivating too heavily, it is important to examine Perry closely. His conservative bonafides leave much to be desired.

Let's examine his record.

Prior to 1989, Rick Perry was a Democrat, who supported Al Gore for president. Perry was Gore's campaign manager in the state of Texas that year.

As Governor of Texas, Perry would have us believe he is a small government guy. But the facts say other wise.

Total spending in Texas the year he became governor in 2000 was approximately $49 billion. Last year it was approximately $90 billion. That is hardly reducing the size of government over a 10 year period.

The total debt of the state of Texas has more than doubled since he became governor. The debt to GDP ratio in Texas is 22.9% and the debt per citizen is $10,645. That's worse than California.

Perry claims he is for keeping taxes low. Not true. He has raised taxes repeatedly during his tenure as governor. Texans have higher taxes and fees than they had before he was elected.

While everyone lauded Perry's leadership by pointing to the low unemployment rate in the Lone Star State, it should be noted that 23 states have a lower unemployment rate than Texas. And Texas has the highest percentage of workers making minimum wage out of all 50 states. In 2007, 221,000 residents of Texas were making minimum wage or less. By 2010, that number had risen to 550,000.

The education system in Texas is abysmal. Barbara Bush, in an op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle, wrote:

• We rank 36th in the nation in high school graduation rates. An estimated 3.8 million Texans do not have a high school diploma.

• We rank 49th in verbal SAT scores, 47th in literacy and 46th in average math SAT scores.

• We rank 33rd in the nation on teacher salaries.

What does that say about the stewardship of Rick Perry with regard to education?

Rick Perry also claims to have a tough stance on illegal immigration. But the facts indicate otherwise.

He signed the DREAM Act in 2001, giving in-state tuition to undocumented students. Perry said at the time, "We must say to every child learning in a Texas classroom, ‘We don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there". This measure is similar to the one the Democrats are pushing at the federal level, one which conservatives vehemently oppose.

Perhaps the biggest issue people opposed to the nanny state should be concerned about is Perry's issuance of an executive order back in 2007 that would have forced almost every single girl in the state of Texas to receive the Gardasil vaccine before entering the sixth grade. Perry was in the tank with Merck. There were apparent financial connections between Merck and Perry reported by news outlets, such as a $6,000 campaign contribution and Merck’s hiring of former Perry Chief of Staff Mike Toomey to handle its Texas lobbying work.

The Texas legislature put the kibosh on that idea by crafting a bill that overturned the executive order.

Subsequently, very serious safety issues with the vaccine came to light. The biggest problem with regard to the Gardasil issue was that Perry appeared to be condoning premarital sex, or at least assuming that middle school girls were going to be engaging in sexual activity, which is the only way that the cervical cancer that the vaccine prevents can be contracted. Many parents and conservatives were justifiably outraged.

When one takes into account these facts about Rick Perry, the only conclusion that can be reached is that Perry is for the expansion of government and its intrusion into our lives.

On Perry's possible run for the White House? No thanks. I think I'll pass.

Will Rick Perry Ride To The Rescue?

The Republican Establishment is determined to roll the dice on Mitt Romney. He's rich; he has rich friends; he's vanilla and predictable, doesn't look like a freak and, most important, it's "his turn," always an important consideration in a dead-end bureaucracy like the Republican Party. But there's a problem: other than fellow Mormons and fellow vulture capitalists, no one likes him-- and the religious right just hates him. Sure, Republicans think he's better than Obama and many other people think he's no worse than Obama-- which is a helluva lot more positive than, say, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, Sarah Palin or any of the other dwarves offering themselves up for the task. But still, there's something uncomfortable in everyone's craw about Romney. He's trying desperately to come off like an everyman, but he's even less successful at it than David Cameron was in the U.K. But if not Romney, who?

Enter Governor Rick Perry of Texas, either as a candidate of the religionist nuts in his own right (no one in the early states cares much about him yet) or as the one who can derail the dreaded Bachmann. No doubt some people do like him for some reason. I won't speculate on that and everyone I know in Texas just hates his guts-- but that's probably a good indication of why he's popular, or even just potentially popular, among Republicans, especially of the far right-wing variety. He's not as unpopular as Rick Scott, Republican governor of Florida, or Scott Walker, Republican governor of Wisconsin. And his July 11th polling numbers were actually even a point above Obama's. Let me go off on a little tangent for a minute and I'll circle back to Rick Perry in a moment. The tangent is Karl Frisch's brilliant analysis yesterday about how the deadbeat congressional Republicans manufactured the default crisis for their own political ends.

During the previous dare not speak his name presidency, both parties increased the debt ceiling so that we could pay our creditors for money borrowed to fund things already approved by Congress and the President. Nothing new there, the debt ceiling has been raised 72 times over the past half century.

Now, with Republicans in control of the House and with a filibuster in the Senate, suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of a debate, this time under President Obama. Which only goes to show you that nothing Obama does will be met without controversy from conservatives. He could take his young daughters ice-skating for Christmas and the right would accuse him of imitating Jesus by walking on water.

A group of 235 economists-- six of them Nobel Prizers-- have written Congressional leaders imploring them to promptly raise the debt ceiling, or risk “substantial negative impact on economic growth at a time when the economy looks a bit shaky. In a worst case, it could push the United States back into recession.”

Pair that warning with comments by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell that the “most important thing [Senate Republicans] want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president” and things begin to smell rotten.

If you doubt the penchant of Republicans to hold our economy hostage, perhaps Kentucky Senator Rand “Libertarian Magic Dust” Paul can change your mind. He threatened to filibuster everything in the Senate until there was a floor debate on the issue. Now, he never made it clear what he wanted to debate, but Majority Leader Harry Reid gave him that opportunity anyway by introducing a bill doing what he’d requested and wouldn’t you know it? Paul and 21 others voted against allowing debate on that bill. See, he’s so serious about the filibuster, he’ll even filibuster what he wants.

Republicans are banking on back-to-back economic collapses-- the first because of their Bush-backed policies, and the second because of partisan inaction-- but there couldn’t be anyone in their midst angling to benefit from the inability to act, could there?

Meet House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who has invested thousands of dollars with his friends on Wall Street in a fund that stands to make serious bank if we default on our obligations.

Cantor is betting against the American government, which I guess shouldn’t be all too surprising since Republicans have been betting against the government for generations. Heck, nearly every GOP campaign is premised on attacking the government. And when they do wrestle control away from the Democrats, Republicans govern in a way that would make anyone question our government’s purpose.

Current Beltway Republicans are just like their Bushian predecessors that got us into this mess in the first place. If we fail to meet our debt obligations, we will lose our perfect credit rating, which would, in turn, add billions of dollars to our debt each year in the form of increased interest. Talk about economic conservatism.

Well, talk about economic conservatism and talk about things Bushian and how could Texas not come to mind? Conservatives like to point to Texas-- Bush's and Perry's Texas-- as the model for how to do it the right way. Well... it may be how to do it the right wing way, but the correct way? That's a joke-- and Texans know it better than anyone.

For all the controversy over the national debt ceiling, here's a surprise: Since 2001, the debt load in conservative Texas has grown faster than the federal debt.

Texas has been borrowing more than most other states, too. And local entities, from cities to school districts to transit authorities, have been piling up even more debt.

From 2001 to 2010, state debt alone grew from $13.4 billion to $37.8 billion, according to the Texas Bond Review Board. That's an increase of 281 percent. Over the same time, the national debt rose almost 234 percent, with two wars, two tax cuts and stimulus spending.

The sets of numbers are not easily comparable, and not just because one is counted in billions and the other in trillions. National figures exclude some obligations, and the Texas total includes so-called conduit bonds, for which the state is not necessarily liable if the borrowers default.

Still, the trend is undeniable. While Texas lawmakers have refused to raise taxes-- and often criticize Washington for borrowing and spending-- the state has been paying for much of its expansion with borrowed money.

That's not a bad thing, if everybody can handle the debt service and spend the money prudently. Texas' population grew almost twice as fast as the nation's in the past decade, so it needs new highways, schools, prisons and more.

Local borrowing accounts for almost 85 percent of public debt in Texas, because the government is so decentralized. Combine state and local borrowing, and Texas ended fiscal 2008 with $216 billion in total debt, up from $98 billion in 2001, according to census figures. (The latest census data for local debt is 2008.)

The borrowing isn't slowing. New issues expected for 2011 include $2 billion for transportation, $434 million for water projects and $235 million for cancer research. All those are paid from the state's general fund.

Much more borrowing is planned for debt that's supported by revenue and user fees. And local borrowing dwarfs all the categories.

...Conservative writer Christopher Chantrill presents publicly available data on government finances and his estimates. Measured as a percentage of state product, he ranks Texas among the lowest on state debt and among the highest on local debt. Combine state and local, and in 2010, he estimates that Texas had debt of $8,943 per person, $380 more than the average for all the states. In 2001, the Texas debt load was $4,608 per person-- and $843 lower than the states' average.

Meanwhile Perry's in the news today-- not because of his secessionist/Confederate leanings but because he's being sued by a religious freedom group "in an effort to block his promotion of and participation in an all-day Christian prayer event to be held Aug. 6, arguing that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state."

The Freedom From Religious Foundation, which claims more than 16,000 members, including 700 in Texas, filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday in Houston, contending that Perry’s actions violate the Constitution's Establishment Clause by “giving the appearance that the government prefers evangelical Christian religious beliefs over other religious beliefs and non-beliefs.”

“We always say, beware prayer by pious politicians,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, who co-directs the group with her husband, Dan Barker, a former evangelical Christian minister who is now an atheist.

“Nothing fails like prayer,” she said. “It’s the ultimate political cop-out.”

The lawsuit, which comes as Perry flirts with joining the field of GOP presidential contenders, notes that the plaintiffs are “nonbelievers who support the free exercise of religion, but strongly oppose the government establishment and endorsement of religion, including prayer and fasting, which are not only an ineffectual use of time and government resources, but which can be harmful or counterproductive as a substitute for reasoned action.”

...“The answers for America’s problems won’t be found on our knees or in heaven, but by using our brains, our reason and in compassionate action,” Barker said. “Governor Perry’s distasteful use of his civil office to plan and dictate a religious course of action to ‘all citizens’ is deeply offensive to many citizens, as well as to our secular form of government.”

Perry has mixed religion with politics before. In April, he called on all Texans to pray for rain for three days as most of the state battled an extreme drought that led to massive wildfires that scorched more than a million acres this year, claimed the lives of two firefighters and destroyed nearly 400 homes.

It didn't work. Instead he called Obama and begged for relief for parched Texans.

Texas, the new right-wing paradise, is in fact a "basket case," says Joshua Holland

If you're going to make crazy-ass demands like that, then maybe there's no place in the "Texas Miracle" for you.

"French cuffs and cowboy boots are, like sauerkraut ice cream, an eclectic combination, but Perry, who wears both, is a potentially potent candidate for the Republican presidential nomination because his political creed is uneclectic, matching that of the Republican nominating electorate. . . ."

-- George F. Will, in a WaPo column,
"Rick Perry: A Texan's 'exceptionalism'"

"Conservative mythology now holds up Texas as a shining example of right-wing governance in action. Republicans would have us believe that gutting the state's social safety net, denying workers the right to bargain collectively and relentlessly cutting taxes unleashed a torrent of 'job creation' and, ultimately, prosperity. . . .

"He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of Big Government while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas' budget gap in the short term, and now he's using the state's longer term fiscal disaster -– one of his own creation -– as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. . . . Texas is indeed a shining example of conservative governance, as well as an almost perfect model for winning the race to the bottom."

-- Alternet's Joshua Holland, in "Texas Is a Shining
Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action
and That's Why It's a Complete Basket-Case"

by Ken

Often, we know, columnists don't write the heads for their columns, but this one sounds like the work of one of the country's most egregious scumbag poseurs. It's pretentious gibberish designed to paper over the true bona fides of a moron who dreamed of lifting himself into the lofty echelon of a sociopathic thug. As we know, sometimes dreams do come true.

The kindest thing an impartial observer could say about Rick Perry is that he's an embarrassment, as opposed to a disgrace, to the human race. Like so many other right-wing devils, he has systematically flouted law and decency to turn his bailiwick into a paradise for the plutocratic elites.

Which reminded me of the Joshua Holland piece last week on Texas I've quoted from above, which I've been meaning to say something about. The notion that Rick Goddamn Perry could be anyone's idea of a serious presidential candidate would boggle the mind if there weren't all those other Republican candidates apparently being taken seriously.

Under governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry's term in office, Texas has indeed been a model of conservative governance, but the truth is that it has resulted in anything but prosperity for the people of the Lone Star State. In fact, Texas is not only a complete basket-case, it would be faring far worse today without the help of policies enacted by Democrats at the federal level – policies Perry lambasted as "irresponsible spending that threatens our future."

Of course the Radical Right masks its greed and selfishness in lies and delusions, and Lies and Delusions Central is the Wall Street Journal, which has been trumpeting a number it came up with" "37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas."

The Journal then spun that fact like this:

Capital -- both human and investment -- is highly mobile, and it migrates all the time to the places where the opportunities are larger and the burdens are lower. Texas has no state income tax. Its regulatory conditions are contained and flexible. It is fiscally responsible and government is small. Its right-to-work law doesn't impose unions on businesses or employees.

In the Journal's hyper-partisan view, the lesson to be learned is that "the core impulse of Obamanomics is to make America less like Texas and more like California, with more government, more unions, more central planning, higher taxes." That spin was echoed during last week's GOP debate by none other than Newt Gingrich, who asked, "Why [would] you want to be at California's unemployment level when you can be [at] Texas's employment level?"

James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas, scoffed at the whole narrative, telling AlterNet, "the notion that our state government is a model is almost enough to beckon the spirit of Molly Ivins back from the shades." Galbraith said "Texas has been a low-tax, low-service state since the time of the Republic," and noted that it's "therefore impossible that this fact suddenly accounts for its better job performance over the past few years." (Texas' record of job creation under Perry is the same as it was under former governor Ann Richards, a Democrat.)

"Texas is an energy state benefiting from high oil prices and the incipient boom in natural gas," explained Galbraith. "That's an accident of nature." He added that the state "went through the S&L crisis, had major criminal prosecutions and more restrictive housing finance regulations this time around; hence it was not an epicenter of the subprime housing disaster. That's called a learning experience." Tighter regulation of the lending industry is also anathema to today's GOP. [Links onsite.]

Left out of the new right-wing narrative, says Joshua, is Texas's 20 percent population surge in the last decade, almost two-thirds of it Hispanic.

A surge in people created greater demand for goods and services, which leads to more jobs. But the jobs being created in Texas aren't keeping up with the state's expanding workforce -– the Wall Street Journal somehow failed to mention that during the exact same period in which it was adding all those new jobs, Texas' unemployment rate actually increased from 7.7 to 8 percent (it also failed to note that 23 states -- including such deep blue ones as Vermont, New York and Massachusetts -- enjoy lower unemployment rates than Texas).

But Joshua is most worked up over the notion that Texas has been "fiscally responsible."

Perry certainly adhered to the conservative playbook, offering massive tax breaks without the deep cuts in services that might inspire a voter backlash. As a result – an entirely predictable one – the Austin American-Statesman reported that "state lawmakers have spent much of the year grappling with a budget shortfall that left them $27 billion short of the money needed to continue current state services."

CNN adds that while Perry was railing against the Democratic stimulus package passed over the fierce resistance of conservatives, the state "was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years," and "it plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money." The stimulus package created or saved 205,000 jobs in Texas, second only to California. But as James Galbraith told AlterNet, while "the state budget has not yet been cut drastically" due to the stimulus boost, "the key phrase is 'not yet.'" Now that the stimulus has run its course, "if projections for the current budget cycle are correct, things will get much worse in the next year."

Indeed, those cuts are now on their way. The Texas legislature imposed draconian cuts to Medicaid, cut tuition aid to 43,000 low-income students and is weighing $10 billion in cuts to the state's education system. According to Texas state senator Rodney Ellis, D-Fort Bend, the 2012-2013 budget will underfund "health and human services in Texas by $23 billion, 29.8 percent below what is needed to maintain current services."

But Perry's tax breaks are indeed part of the state's jobs picture; as Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi noted, Perry established several massive business tax breaks "designed to lure companies from other states."

Joshua notes that "the funds have been controversial," with millions of dollars going to --

whose officers or investors are major Perry campaign donors and Perry has allowed them to keep their subsidies in many cases even when they fail to deliver promised jobs. More important for the purposes of judging Perry’s job-creating record, even those that do produce jobs don’t necessarily create long-lasting ones, or increase the state’s overall prosperity.

Joshua cites a report "written for Perry last spring" by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School which argues "that such tax breaks 'ultimately don't support long-term prosperity,' because companies that can move easily 'are looking for the best deal and when the deal runs out they move' again, taking their jobs with them."

And what the "Texas Miracle" has been creating, says Joshua, is "crappy jobs." He quotes the American Independent's Patrick Brendel: "Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage." The state is "tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers." California, he notes, is at the other end of the spectrum, at under 2 percent.

At a fundraiser this week, Rick Perry, who despite toying with the idea of secession in the past may now be eying a White House bid, told a group of Republican fat-cats that in his state, "you don't have to use your imagination, saying, 'What'll happen if we apply this or that conservative principle?' You just need to look around, because they've been in play across our state for years, generating real results."

In this, Perry is absolutely, 100 percent correct. He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of Big Government while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas' budget gap in the short term, and now he's using the state's longer term fiscal disaster -– one of his own creation -– as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. As a result of these policies, plus immigration and other external factors, his state's added a lot of low-paying poverty jobs without decent benefits. He's added very little in the way of "prosperity."

In the final analysis, Texas is indeed a shining example of conservative governance, as well as an almost perfect model for winning the race to the bottom.

Is it any wonder that George Will hearts Rick Perry?

#

Reason #48 not to vote for Sarah Palin for anything

It is no surprise that Sarah endorsed Rick Perry who like her husband Todd favors secessionism.

Rick also allows his religious beliefs to dictate his policies (anti-gay, anti-abortion) He also agrees with the strict right wing nutjob beliefs of Rev John Hagee.  He also believes Texas has the right to secede from the Union.  (A little incident called the Civil War circa 1861-65 took care of that).  And he is a fiscal conservative yet took several trips to outside the United States where he billed the State of Texas for security detail costing over a million dollars.

After President Obama went to Alabama to see the tornado damage, Perry bitched that Obama was ignoring Texas.  This coming from a guy to who favors seccession.