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.

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lynettemaKQµårk 死神bitoKillgoreTroutDorothy Rissman Recent comment authors
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lynettema
Member
lynettema

All very upsetting. Is there or are there links where all these Perry realities can be confirmed? I would love to pass them around, but there will be those that want proof. Thanks.

bito
Member

lynettema, You should be able to see them and more here: http://www.austinchronicle.com/rick-perry/

lynettema
Member
lynettema

Thanks.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Spot on BSM. Perry would be an absolute nightmare because unlike Backmann I think he would be able to pass his agenda like he did in Texas.

Emerald1943
Member

Good morning, Planeteers! I trust you all are well and happy this beautiful Sunday morning!

And for a smile, this from Daily Kos:

———————————————–

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/14/1006181/-Deep-Fried-GOP?via=blog_

My favorite quote of the day;

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in excess body fat and carrying a misspelled sign!”

Have a very, very nice day, y’all! 🙂

ADONAI
Member

I’m watching CNN today(cause I couldn’t find the remote and I. Am. LAZY!) and they were having one of their awesome roundtable discussions.

I’m sorry, did I say roundtable discussion? I meant The Assemblage of Screaming Disembodied Heads In Boxes.(still Vincent Price’s best movie)

Anyways, I actually decided to halfway pay attention since I was stuck with it for the time being and they happened to be discussing the Rickster. I have no idea who most of the people at CNN are so I can’t give a name, but the lady hosting the “discussion” was talking about Perry’s record and she said, “blah blah taxes, blah blah “rainy day fund” blah blah Her balanced the Texas state budget blah blah”

That last part sounded off to me. Not the “blah blah” part, the “He balanced the state budget” part. Cause that was all she said. She was leaving out something incredibly important.

Rick Perry didn’t balance the Texas state budget. President Obama did. Perry may have signed a piece of paper but the federal government gave him the money he used to pay budget concerns. Just one of many Republican governors who took the money while bitching about how terrible it is. “Oh mercy who will save me from all this terrible money!?” Fuckin’ asshole.

He can’t possibly get elected. He’s not “another Bush”.

1.)Bush faced a relatively weaker field in his primaries. McCain was the one guy to make a push but we know how that ended. Good lord John McCain. Look how far you’ve fallen.

2.)Bush is part of a powerful political family. Perry was in the Boy Scouts.

3.)Bush only had to beat Al Gore. That’s right. I said “only”. We all saw Obama hand McCain his ass in those debates.

Still mad about that Al Gore comment aren’t ya? Google “Al Gore Lockbox”.

Yeah, pretty bad wasn’t it? Couldn’t tell the difference between the SNL skit and the real thing could you? Keep blamin’ Nader. But the truth is on film. Saved for prosperity.

Also,

Don’t Mess With Texas!

‘Cause if you do they’ll run away and form their own country. Then come crawling back six months later after Mexico invades.

What? You think they just forgot?! They were just gonna “let it go”?

No, no, no my friends. Just biding their time.

¡Viva México!

KQµårk 死神
Member

Great post AD!

ADONAI
Member

Thanks KQ! I was trying to be as sarcastic as I possibly could. Hope it shows! 🙂

KillgoreTrout
Member

Actually, Gore did win the popular vote. Bush cheated.

ADONAI
Member

Bush WON. That’s really all that matters.

Maybe if Gore had realized that before it was too late.

And he won the popular vote?! Wow! Get back to me when we decide elections on the popular vote. 😉

KillgoreTrout
Member

“Yeah, pretty bad wasn’t it? Couldn’t tell the difference between the SNL skit and the real thing could you?”

This is your statement that I was referring to. The slim majority did prefer Gore. And Nader did take many young votes away from Gore. Just sayin!

ADONAI
Member

I know KT.

Gore should have been President. People say Bush stole Florida. And it’s pretty obvious he did.

I don’t really question that. My question is for every other state before that. Did he steal all those too? No. Gore lost them.

It should have never gotten that far. And you can’t blame Nader for that one. He barely got any votes.

Gore was awful on the stump,mediocre in the debates, and carried himself like he deserved to be President.

And that’s not him. He got caught up in it. If he had been the Al Gore we all know today – funny, charming, fiery – he would have walked away with it.

My opinion anyways.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Yeah, he was sort of like a big piece of wood. My daughter lives in Portland OR and she said Nader was really big there among the 20 somethings. I don’t know about the midwest or east coast though.

KQµårk 死神
Member

Don’t really want to enter the fray, but to call America a democracy when a candidate wins the popular vote and loses the election is a travesty.

I think one of the HUGE problems with our system is the idea of State’s rights and worse State’s equality in representation. That’s one reason we have the electoral college is the way it is. At least states should apportion their EC votes in the general.

I mean having two Senators from a state with a few hundred thousand people and over 35 million people is lopsided representation. Nothing represented this disparity more when the Senators that worked on HCR represented only a few million voters.

ADONAI
Member

Couldn’t agree more KQ. The electoral college should have been abolished a LONG time ago.

Many, many things should have. The country isn’t the same as it was 200 years ago.

KQµårk 死神
Member

It was a technology issue too because back then the individual votes were tough to count. But like you said c’mon we have 200+ years of technological innovation where we can get the popular vote in a matter of hours these days.

bito
Member

BSM, why not the amendment process? Why only the CC process?

bito
Member

And I don”t remember the ‘lock-box” proposal as being a huge deciding factor. Some may have scoffed, but how many years have the R’s either wanted to either kill SS or privatize it. Perry thinks it’s unconstitutional along with Medicare.

KQµårk 死神
Member

It’s amazing how right of even Bush the GOP is these days. Especially second term Bush almost seems moderate these days. I mean can you imagine anyone one of these GOP candidates offering amnesty in any way on immigration.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Bush was basically a puppet of the neo-cons. He pretty much did whatever Cheney told him to do. I don’t think the neo-cons have much control these days. Especially after the mess in Iraq. Today’s GOP/TP are totally bought and sold by the corporations.

bito
Member

Still need more on “Good Hair” Perry? Take a look at this site from the Austin Chronicle.

From their introduction:

The Perry Trap

Governor Rick Perry may be new on the national stage, but he’s old news in Austin. Over the two decades of his political career, The Austin Chronicle has charted his rise to power.

We’ve gathered our most insightful stories about his political career – and it hasn’t all been secession talk and laser-sighted pistols. The Chronicle’s writers have examined his links to big business and big donors, his indiscriminate use of the death penalty, how he’s flirted (or bedded down) with every conservative movement from the Religious Right to the Tea Party, and loads more.

Democrat. Republican. A man of private faith. Conservative Christian panderer. Butch game hunter. Governor Goodhair. Texas Governor Rick Perry is many things. The Perry Trap catalogues his many guises.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/rick-perry/
Follow @ThePerryTrap > > >

Some amazing stuff and for anyone on twitter or FB please pass this along.

And good job BSM and I think The Perry Trap should flesh out some of your post. This guy looks more like a grifter crossed with a carnival barker, IMO.

KillgoreTrout
Member

Great rundown Blue State! I don’t see how this creep expects to win with a record like that. In the primaries he won’t get to be interviewed only by the radicals on the right. He’ll have some serious questions to answer.

ADONAI
Member

He was really good in No Country For Old Men and W. though.

Chernynkaya
Member

Adonai– 😆 😆 😆 perfect!

agrippa
Member
agrippa

Perry lives in a state in which his party has very effevtive opposition. Texas is, virtually, a one party state. Perry will face real competition; something that he has not really faced.

It is not easy to ‘climb the greasy pole’.

AdLib
Admin

Especially when the person trying to climb it is greasier.

AdLib
Admin

Here are a trove of statistics from TX by a Legislative committee that expose how Perry has destroyed the social infrastructure of TX:

Texas standings against all 50 states on a variety of issues (1st means highest ranking, 50th means lowest ranking).

• State Aid Per Pupil in Average Daily Attendance – 47th
• Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) Scores – 45th
• % of Population 25 and Older with High School Diploma – 50th
• High School Graduation Rate – 43rd
• Per Capita State Spending on State Arts Agencies – 43rd
• Birth Rate – 2nd
• Percent of Uninsured Children – 1st
• Percent of Children Living in Poverty – 4th
• Percent of Population Uninsured – 1st
• Percent of Non-Elderly Uninsured – 1st
• Percent of Low Income Population Covered by Medicaid – 49th
• Percent of Population with Employer-Based Health Insurance – 48th
• Total Health Expenditures as % of the Gross State Product – 43rd
• Per Capita State Spending on Mental Health – 50th
• Per Capita State Spending on Medicaid – 49th
• Health Care Expenditures per Capita – 44th
• Physicians per Capita – 42nd
• Registered Nurses per Capita – 44th
• Average Monthly Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) Benefits per Person – 47th
• Percent of Population Who Visit the Dentist – 46th
• Overall Birth Rate – 2nd
• Teenage Birth Rate – 7th
• Births to Unmarried Mothers – 17th
• Percent of Women with Pre-Term Birth – 9th
• Percent of Non-Elderly Women with Health Insurance – 50th
• Rate of Women Aged 40+ Who Receive Mammograms – 40th
• Cervical Cancer Rate – 11th
• Percent of Women with High Blood Pressure – 16th
• Percent of Pregnant Women Receiving Prenatal Care in First Trimester – 50th
• Women’s Voter Registration – 45th
• Women’s Voter Turnout – 49th
• Percent of Women Living in Poverty – 6th
• Mortgage Debt as Percent of Home Value – 47th
• Foreclosure Rates – 10th
• Median Net Worth of Households – 47th
• Average Credit Score – 49th
• Retirement Plan Participation – 47th
• Amount of Carbon Dioxide Emissions – 1st
• Amount of Volatile Organic Compounds Released into Air – 1st
• Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released into Water – 1st
• Amount of Recognized Cancer-Causing Carcinogens Released into Air – 1st
• Amount of Hazardous Waste Generated – 1st
• Amount of Toxic Chemicals Released into Air – 5th
• Amount of Recognized Cancer-Causing Carcinogens Released into Water – 7th
• Number of Hazardous Waste Sites on National Priority List – 7th
• Consumption of Energy per Capita – 5th
• Workers’ Compensation Coverage – 50th
• Income Inequality Between the Rich and the Poor – 9th
• Income Inequality Between the Rich and the Middle Class – 5th
• Homeowner’s Insurance Affordability – 46th
• Number of Executions – 1st

http://shapleigh.org/system/reporting_document/file/509/texasonthebrink.pdf

Emerald1943
Member

Adlib, thanks for this information! As we speak right now, CNN is talking about Perry’s record in Texas.

Maybe it is in your list and I missed it…Texas has the highest number of minimum wage jobs. It was also mentioned that they have one of the highest percentages of uninsured people. I don’t see where Mr. Perry really has much to brag about!

AdLib
Admin

The minimum wage jobs item isn’t in the list above (though it is reflected in the poverty and low income stats) but TX being #1 in uninsured people is.

TX is leading the nation in a plummeting standard of living, poor education and inadequate health care. This is the model for America?

Baggers may love the idea and I hope they make him the nominee because we will bury him with his record.

Emerald1943
Member

Adlib, I did see the uninsured item after I posted. Ali Velshi and Candy Crowley did not cut him much slack on CNN.

As usual, you give us the most wonderful ammo to go after him! Thanks! 🙂

Caru
Member

Damn.

Dorothy Rissman
Member
Dorothy Rissman

That is absolutely stunning. I had no idea, and to think that he wants to be Bush 2 is something I have a difficult time wrapping my head around. Bush wasn’t very smart and was mostly on the wrong side of everything I believe, but I do not think he was as ruthless as Perry.

I will share this list.

Gordonskene
Member

The sad and strange part is that this guy will actually get votes. I worry about us sometimes.

Chernynkaya
Member

Gordon– Welcome! Yes, he’ll get a lot of votes if he gets the nom even in the general. But I really hope he does get the nomination because I cannot fathom that he could win. As disillusioned as I am with the American electorate, I simply don’t believe most of us are that insane.

Emerald1943
Member

Gordon, welcome to PPOV!

He will get a lot of votes just because there is a percentage of this population with blinders firmly in place, the same blinders that would allow people to believe Sarah Palin qualified to be President. One really positive thing about the debt ceiling…the American people are watching a little more closely now!

Governor Perry has a lot of ugly baggage that he carries into this battle. It’s going to be interesting to say the least.

EDIT: Sorry, Gordon…I put this comment in the wrong place! Technologically challenged sometimes! 🙂

KillgoreTrout
Member

Em, I think this is the very reason Perry is relying on his “prayer warriors” and “new apostles” that he seems to be doing. I said yesterday that, even though there are a lot of people on the Christian right, these “new apostles” are just too far out there. I mean the stuff they’re spouting is really ridiculous. Maybe even too ridiculous for the Christian right. Fingers crossed!

AdLib
Admin

Welcome to The Planet, Gordon!

Let’s not forget that even with 8 years of Bush destroying the country, in the middle of the worst economic crash in our lifetimes…46% of voters still voted to stay the course with Republicans and voted for McCain/Palin.

Worry is not only deserved, it is well advised.