Ladies and Gents…The Real Rick Perry!

Rick Perry was named as one of the worst governors in the nation for his history of ethical problems by the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Along with his contention that Social Security, Medicare and most other entitlements are Unconstitutional, he thinks as well that the earth is 6,000 years old.. that women were created out of Adams rib… that the Statue of Liberty is part of an evil, secular, French Freemason agenda…. oh, and he feels that Constitution is in line with the notion that this is a “Christian Nation”.

His dogmatic devotion to these “Christian” ideals didn’t seem to have been sullied when, after inheriting a ten BILLION dollar deficit from George W Bush (who was quoted as saying as he left office, “I’m glad I’m not the one to have to clean this mess up”) immediately threw 161,000 children off of the “S-Chip” Program.. an insurance initiatlve that covered disadvantaged and handicapped kids… causing most of them to suffer even more, leaving many thousands of them hungry, hopeless and hundreds more of them to just lay down and die.

He also thinks that it’s OK to execute people even after their innocence was proven… and didn’t blink an eye when, days before an expert was to give testimony, he rearranged the board at the Texas Forensic Science Commission to appoint one of his top lieutenants, John Bradley, as the new Chair.  Bradley immediately canceled a hearing on the death of Cameron Todd Willingham, a man who was executed without having committed the crime he was accused of.  There were at least 3 others who suffered the same fate.

I’m sure the ‘merciful Jesus’ he prays to would be thrilled that he (and his cadre of ‘Banana Republicans’) hijacked millions of dollars from Texas’ Electric Bill Assistance Fund.. money set aside to help pay summer electric bills for low-income residents… during the worst drought and heat wave in memory.

He seems to think it’s perfectly fine that friends and donors whom he appointed to the Texas Teacher Retirement System Board (TRS) steered hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for educators — and millions in fees — right back to the firms run by his campaign donors.

It seems that ‘lying’ is in sync with his embrace of the Ten Commandments as well.

In 2007, Texans learned of of a massive sex abuse scandal at the Texas Youth Commission. When news of the scandal broke, Perry claimed he knew nothing about the abuse until he saw it in the paper.  In fact, he and his office were informed of a stalled investigation into the abuse as early as February 2005, two years before news reports first came out.

He didn’t question any issues of “Constitutionality” when he coordinated with two business partners to flip land he had purchased and sold in order to profit more than $500,000. He covered-up this scandal by refusing to release the public listing agreement, attempting to hide the identity of the land buyer and hiding the fact that the buyer was a business partner with the original seller.

He had no problem as he handed out $16 million in taxpayer dollars from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to companies tied to his top political contributors… the public corruption scandal showed that he gave his “close friend” and campaign contributor David Nance a $4.5 million handout, despite the fact that Nance side-stepped two review boards to receive it.

He feels that it was absolutely fine when he covered-up and refused to answer ethics complaints involving more than $1 million in potentially illegal state expenditures.

One complaint zeroed in on the $816,000 in campaign dollars, reported in lump sums, for what Perry calls “mansion expenses.” For months, Perry reported a flat monthly expense ranging from $3,000 or $6,500 as “mansion expenses” without any supporting detail — a violation of campaign disclosure laws. The expenses were for Perry’s $10,000-a-month taxpayer funded rental mansion. Additionally, Perry failed to disclose $204,400 in debt on his College Station home from 2007-2009.

He had no compunction in covering up Texas’ dropout crisis, pushing false dropout numbers to hide the fact that at least 4 in 10 Texas high school students do not graduate from high school or get a GED in four years.

The Governor was just fine with his refusal to come to grips and be honest about the $25 billion budget shortfall facing the state of Texas…. a budget crisis which is devastating their economy (and will for many years)…. a shortfall which is now “proportionately larger” than California’s.

His ability to lie even about the “Texas Jobs Miracle” is unsurpassed….

After belching out the old meme that “Government doesn’t create jobs”… most that he touted were (you guessed it) Government jobs… but due to his ‘brilliance’, layoffs are looming.

State budget cuts, championed by Mr. Perry to address a big budget shortfall, are prompting school districts around the state to lay off hundreds of teachers and other workers going into the school year starting next month.  Those jobs seem to be expendable.

It stands to reason that a swaggering Texan would know that it is a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth. Rick Perry rejected $555 million in unemployment insurance from the federal government, only to accept $14 billion in other federal stimulus dollars (directed at his friends and donors in business… the “job creators”).

It seems that the closeted secessionist didn’t mind the Federal Government stuffing his cronies’ pockets… hypocrisy  being the least of his shortcomings.

The truth of the matter is that Texas actually lost 352,500 non-farm jobs since 2008 according to seasonally adjusted data over the past three years… and they lost 61,600 additional since March 2011 alone according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The only “Miracle” is that this degenerate hasn’t yet been struck by lightning.