He's such a moral leader, isn't he? Thanks, Gov. Perry, for showing us the way life should be lived!
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Sunday that he believes rejecting LGBT people is similar to fighting slavery during the pre-Civil War era.
Appearing on the Family Research Council‘s program “Stand With Scouts Sunday,” the arch conservative governor urged the Boy Scouts to stand strong against any impulse to “tear apart” the organization’s values and replace them with the “flavor of the month.”
“The fact is, this is a private organization,” Perry said of the Boy Scouts. “Their values and principles have worked for a century now. And for pop culture to come in and try to tear that up, which happens to be the flavor of the month so to speak, and to tear apart one of the great organizations that has served millions of young men, helped them become men and great fathers, that is just not appropriate and I hope the American people will stand up and say, ‘Not on my watch.’”
Meanwhile, in the Texan business community …Well, come to find out, the West Fertilizer Company lied to the EPA.
The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show.
West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.
But the report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.
So the volunteer firefighters at the burning plant had no idea what they were dealing with. Because it’s easy to lie in Texas. All ya gotta do is check a box.
And why would they lie? They were storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They didn’t want EPA or the DHS in their business. That might cost them time and money.We all know how Rick Perry feels about the EPA, don’t we? He thinks its sole goal is to kill jobs.
“Somebody has to tell the E.P.A. that we don’t need you monkeying around and fiddling around and getting in our business with every kind of regulation you can dream up,” he said. “You’re doing nothing more than killing jobs. It’s a cemetery for jobs at the E.P.A.”
So, Rick Perry handed us this mushroom cloud on a silver platter.
I cannot wait to hear hear him and Ron Paul explain how the market forces will correct this. The company will declare bankruptcy, its owners will keep their money and the injured people will hold bake sales to pay their medical bills. That’s what we call “Business Friendly” in Texas.
But now Rick Perry, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz just love the Federal Government. I tell you what, I would buy Chris Christie an airplane ticket if he would come down to West, Texas, and shake his finger in Ted Cruz’s face.
Cruz voted against aid for New Jersey but now wants aid for Texas.They can all kiss my big blue butt.
In 2011, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Barry Smitherman to lead the board that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, which is called, oddly, the Texas Railroad Commission. Smitherman then ran for the board and was elected in 2012.
He, of course, is an idiot who froths at the mouth as often as possible -- which is why he’s a friend of Rick Perry’s.
Smitherton took to the Twitter and reposted a picture showing a noose and suggesting that any of the 16 Senators who voted to debate gun control be charged with treason and hung.
He put that on Twitter. Yeah, so everydamnbody can see it.
Barry has also launched himself a fancy pants website where this pretty much says all you need to know –
He is an outspoken critic of the Obama EPA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s attempts to limit U.S. oil and gas exploration and domestic power generation. Barry is an unwavering defender of the 2nd Amendment, he is pro-life, and pro-free markets. He and his wife, Marijane, have been married for 26 years and are proud parents of four children. They attend Lake Hills Church in Austin.
The website is cryptically named BarryForTexas.com Yeah, the dude has his sites set on higher office.
If you get some free time today, scamper on over and read Barry’s Blog. Warning: grab a jacket first because this thing is gonna send chills all over ya. From …
“Over two thousand years ago, Christ died as the payment for our sins. Three days later He conquered death and rose from the dead!”
… all the way to …
“This Saturday, February 23rd, I will be showing my support for the Second Amendment by celebrating .223 Day with our employees at the Railroad Commission of Texas. To celebrate, we will be partaking in a Concealed Handgun License course.”
… Barry touches all the hot button issues with a quick stop at marriage equality in between. You gotta admire this. That bar is set so high that it’d take an eagle two jumps to get over it. From Jesus to nooses to guns and a little extra judgmental hate thrown in.
We can really grow ‘um to pander in Texas, can’t we?
On Wednesday, the Texas State legislature, currently composed of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats, unanimously passed Senate Bill 11, which mandates that every Texan applying for food assistance through the TANF (Texas Assistance for Needy Families) program, submit to an undefined "screening process" and possible drug test before receiving benefits if the screener finds "good cause" to even suspect that person is... or is likely to... abuse any "controlled substance" -- despite the fact that there is no evidence at all that people seeking assistance are more likely to do drugs.
According to the bill’s author, Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound), the purpose of the bill:
“It ensures that TANF, formerly known as welfare, supports its core purpose of helping families to achieve self-sufficiency,” said Nelson, as she introduced the bill. “We found common ground to support a plan that makes sure state resources aren’t used to support a drug habit while at the same time making sure children receiving benefit in a productive environment.”
The state of Florida passed an almost identical testing procedure that ran from 1999 to 2001 and was reintroduced in July of 2011 that was struck down by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta the following month, citing the fact:
"there is nothing inherent to the condition of being impoverished that supports the conclusion that there is a `concrete danger' that impoverished individuals are prone to drug use."
The Tampa Tribune investigated the results of those July 2011 drug tests and found that "96 percent proved to be drug free", another 2 percent never bothering to complete the lengthy application process, and 2 percent actually failing drug testing. At an average cost of $30 per test, the state was hemorrhaging tax dollars at a rate of "$28,800-$43,200 monthly"... FAR out pacing the supposed "savings" from preventing drug-abusers from gaming the system to buy drugs.
The Texas bill is a bit more insidious than the Florida program, leaving the decision whether or not to submit an applicant for the confiscation and testing of their bodily fluids up to an ambiguous "good cause" determination by an unspecified process.
Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas, said she was shocked to see the measure pass unanimously when it clearly singles out poor Texans as more likely to abuse drugs when federal surveys find no difference in use across any income groups and given the clear experience of Florida that such measures cost more money than they save.
This is just further perpetuation of the stereotype that poor people are all lazy drug-abusing scam-artists, rather than just people that have fallen on hard times seeking assistance. The results of these programs is always the same. Legislators are "shocked" to discover that PEOPLE WITH NO MONEY CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY DRUGS. Pick up any tabloid or turn on the TV, and the biggest drug abusers are the rich & famous (see: Lindsay Lohan), star athletes and the rich spoiled children of corporate executives, not the Average Joe who lost his home after his multi-billion dollar bank got bailed out -- and he didn't.
Addendum: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has proposed, not only taking this costly & ineffectual program national, but extending it to those seeking unemployment benefits as well.
There’s two brothers named Kemel and Mark Cereceda who run a pain clinic in Hialeah, Florida. They wanted to influence legislation to keep their chiropractic pain relief clinic in the business of making a boatload of money.
Now in Florida, an individual or company can only donate $500 to each candidate. So the Cereceda brothers set up straw men to funnel money into their favorite politicians’ campaigns. They used family members and employees to donate to politicians to the tune of $25,000.
They got the investigation of the illegal campaign donations rolling when a district court judge in Florida used her official court letterhead to get their lapsed chiropractic license reinstated. It was discovered that she had accepted money from the Cerecedas and then the investigation of other illegal activity took root. (They were also involved with some hanky-panky with Marco Rubio some years ago.)
A politically active Hialeah pain clinic owner surrendered Friday on allegations that he engineered illegal campaign contributions to candidates across the state.
Investigators believe chiropractor Mark Cereceda — who once lobbied lawmakers to keep intact Florida’s personal injury protection law — made clinic employees donate to candidates, then reimbursed the workers in cash and checks.
Cereceda’s brother, Kemel Cereceda, also was charged with a felony and one misdemeanor relating to illegal contributions. Charges also were brought against Mark Cereceda’s clinic, Florida Wellness & Rehabilitation Center, which specializes in treating traffic accident victims.
Now, if you’re wondering why I’m telling you a big long story about election fraud in Florida when I live in Texas, it’s because I’m fixing to bring this story to Texas. And it’s in a bag with Rick Perry’s name on it.
Here's one for your Facebook page. It seems like Mitt Romney isn't the only Republican with Romnesia. Enjoy this collection of his current Republican boosted saying what they really think about the Mittster! Dear God, even Newt Gingrich is telling the truth.
We already know he's not too bright, so it's no surprise that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is glomming onto this tactic just as former Norquist followers are pulling back from strict adherence. And we know he isn't trying to get onto the Romney ticket, since they can't stand each other. I wonder what he's thinking:
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist has held most Republicans by the scruff of the neck during recent tax debates due to their having signed the ATR anti-tax pledge, which states that the signees will not vote for a tax increase any time, for any reason. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), who received accoladesfrom Norquist during his presidential run, is aiming to start a similar pledge in the Lone Star State:
Borrowing a page from anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist’s playbook, Perry said on Monday, “Each and every member of the Legislature or anyone aspiring to become a member of the Legislature should sign on.” And right on the Governor’s website, individuals and lawmakers can sign on to the Compact: Yes, I stand with Governor Perry and I support his Texas Budget Compact. I want my state representatives in the Texas Legislature to sign on to Governor Perry’s Texas Budget Compact.
The compact calls for complete opposition to tax increases, as well as constitutional spending limits and restrictions on using the state’s Rainy Day Fund (which Perry previously pluggedusing federal money meant for education). While Perry isn’t personally tracking who signs his pledge, he said that outside organizations might.
Part of the compact calls for legislators to eschew budget gimmicks, even though Perry himself is quite fond of using such gimmicks to balance his budget. As Texas State Rep. Mike Villarreal said in a statement, “Governor Perry loves to talk about his principles in the abstract, but he doesn’t want to discuss the disabled kids who lose health services when he won’t close corporate tax loopholes, or the students crowded into full classrooms when he won’t touch the Rainy Day Fund.”
Poor Rick Perry. Back when he still had a chance, he couldn't string two coherent sentences together. And now that he's probably at the end of the line, he finally learns to play the game: Namely, to lie, exaggerate and deny with the best of them.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor Perry, thanks for joining us this morning.
PERRY: Good morning, George. How are you?
STEPHANOPOULOS: I'm doing well. Thank you. Less than a week to go in South Carolina, you're still lagging far behind. To borrow a metaphor from your home state, has South Carolina become your Alamo?
PERRY: I don't think so. But we get out every day and go take our message of job creation, and, you know, we're the most consistent fiscal conservative and social conservative in the race, and that's our message, both on the airwaves and out on the campaign trail. The retail politics in South Carolina has been awesome.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But as you know, Governor, that big group of social conservatives meeting in Texas yesterday, decided you're not the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. They want Rick Santorum to have that mantle. You didn't even make the final ballot.
PERRY: Well, that's what they said about Ronald Reagan as well, that, you know, he was unelectable, he was not the one that they wanted to pick. But South Carolina citizens said, you know what, he is. So we'll wait and see Saturday what the people of South Carolina say.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What is your message this final week?
PERRY: Well, it's all about jobs and getting this country back working again. I'm -- 11 years of executive governing experience that have created a million jobs in my home state, the 13th largest economy in the world. I keep the taxes low, the regulatory climate fair and predictable, a legal system that doesn't allow for oversuing. And in a state that's got quite a military history and a lot of veterans here, I think they're looking for a president who not only has worn the uniform of the country, but also has been the commander in chief of 20,000-plus National Guard troops that have been deployed multiple times. They know my commitment to the men and women of the military, and we'll stand with them and support them over the course of the years.
As we already know, Texas has a "weak governor," one whose powers and responsibilities are few. We see how well that same "executive governing experience" prepared George W. Bush to be president.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor, as you know, you have taken some heat this week from many Republicans for your attacks on Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist during his time at Bain Capital. Want to read some of them here. Sean Hannity said, "it almost sounds like Occupy Wall Street." Rudy Giuliani, "it's ignorant and dumb." Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, "it really gives the Democrats a lot of fodder." Any regrets for using that phrase?
PERRY: I think the issue -- it's not a new phrase. It was used by Stewart Stephens (ph), who was one of Mitt Romney's consultants, against Meg Whitman. I think the issue for everyone is, look, this is something that we knew wasn't going to come up. And it's better to be talking about it here in January in South Carolina than it is in September and October with a nominee. So if it's a fatal flaw, then we need to talk about it now.
The issue has been about who's best prepared and who has the background of creating jobs, and that's what those comments were always about, was that, who is the job creator that's on that stage, and I will submit to you that my job creation record is incomparable when it comes to the other candidates on that stage.
Oh yeah, there's the little fact that most of the jobs created in Texas were federal jobs.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you don't buy Mitt Romney's argument that at Bain he created more than 100,000 jobs?
PERRY: I think, you know, the issue is, what is the total -- it's just like Sarah Palin, when Sarah asked that question, she said, you know, that's really what this issue is all about, not whether or not did the Bain Capital is a job creator or not, but did they really create that many jobs? So, yes, I think the question is out there, and it's a good conversation to have. We're going to get tested by Obama and his group. So, you better have all of these answers done early. No surprises in September and October.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But I think what a lot of Republicans are worried about, is they're going to hear that phrase "vulture capitalism" coming out of your mouth, from President Obama and the Democrats in the fall?
Texas’ Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice, Don Clemmer, later testified that his office didn’t have the resources to investigate allegations of sexual abuse at a TYC facility in Ward County because at the time the local agent was busy investigating charges of voter fraud by a 68-year-old Hispanic woman.
For six years, Gov. Rick "Law and Order" Perry dragged his feet on attacking systemic problems with child rape in the state's Texas Youth Commission facilities. I'm sure his reluctance had nothing to do with his major donors from the GEO Group, the company to whom he'd bestowed prison privatization contracts:
Mary Jane Martinez's son Jimmy entered the Texas criminal justice system in 2003 because he missed his school bus. He was charged with truancy and destruction of property (for throwing rocks) and sent to live in a county juvenile detention center for a sentence of six months. After five months, instead of being released, he was transferred to an academy 400 miles away, managed by the Texas Youth Commission, the agency that oversees detention and treatment centers across the state. Jimmy finally came home, four years after he was sent away, a period his mother now describes as a living hell. His best friend had been murdered, and Jimmy had been beaten and raped—both, Mrs. Martinez testifed, by TYC guards.
"It just made him worse," Martinez says of the treatment. "My son has PTSD now. He's schizo." Unable to find a job after getting out, he was arrested for burglary and landed in a prison facility eight hours away from his native San Antonio.
He wasn't the only victim. Go read the rest.
In response to the outcry, Perry appointed his former chief of staff, Jay Kimbrough, to investigate the abuses, and hired an independent ombudsman to sit on the board.
But reports continued to pile up. In late 2007, Texas shut down three TYC facilities in quick succession, the last coming in October, when it shuttered a Coke County juvenile detention center after the ombudsman reported unsanitary conditions, such as feces in the shower and blocked-off emergency exits. Two months later, seven former inmates filed suit alleging that they had been sexually abused by guards at the facility, which was operated by the Florida-based private contractor, GEO Group.
There was a lot not to like during the Reagan Library GOP Debate last night, where presidential candidates attacked science, 999, and called Social Security a Ponzi scheme among a host of other insane ideas, but nothing shocked me more than when the audience started cheering Rick Perry's appalling record of executions in Texas.
Republican voters at Wednesday night's Republican presidential debate expressed their approval of the death penalty by giving Gov. Rick Perry's record on executions some of the loudest applause of the night.
"Your state has executed 234 death row inmates, more than any other governor in modern times," NBC's Brian Williams told Perry as the conservative audience broke into cheers and applause. "Have you struggled to sleep at night with the idea that any one of those might have been innocent?"
"No, sir, I've never struggled with that at all," Perry flatly stated. "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is you will be executed."
The audience again cheered at Perry's mention of "the ultimate justice."
"What do you make of that dynamic that just happened here, the mention of the execution of 234 people drew applause?" Williams asked.
"I think Americans understand justice," Perry explained. "I think Americans are clearly in the vast majority of cases, supportive of capital punishment. When you have committed heinous crimes against our citizens, and it's a state-by-state issue, but in the state of Texas, our citizens have made that decision, and they made it clear, and they don't want you to commit those crimes against our citizens, and if you do, you will face the ultimate justice."
